Athletics: Lauderdale Limpers Running Club ace Alex Hastings excels at Earlston Black Hill Race

Hastings, originally from Lauder but now living in Edinburgh, had impressively completed the Celtman extreme triathlon event in the Highlands a month earlier and he again displayed his tenacity in abundance to dominate this latest event and clock a winning time of 33 minutes 55 seconds.

"The weather on the night was horrendous,” Lauderdale Limpers head coach for the past 26 years, 63-year-old Graeme Sutherland, told the Southern Reporter. “Some local roads were shut, there were really heavy thunderstorms and rain so it made the conditions very slippy.

“Alex had been training hard, he told me everything felt great on the night and he was very pleased to win.

"I was delighted for him because the guy who was due to be running for us – Marc Wilkinson – who could also have won it couldn’t make it that night.

"Alex and Marc are up there with the best runners we have at the club. We have a very good high end squad just now, amongst a total of 170 runners.”

In a fantastic double for Lauderdale Limpers, junior member Sam Robertson (14) won the junior Earlston Black Hill race over 1.7km.

"Sam loves his running,” Sutherland added. “He was third in the event last year so really wanted to win it this year.”

In another Borders triumph at the Earlston event, Gala Harriers athlete Isla Paterson won the women’s race in 37 minutes 25 seconds.

Paterson triumphed by over two minutes from second-placed clubmate Katy Barden.

Top 10: 1 Alex Hastings (Lauderdale Limpers) 00:33:55, 2 Douglas McKinnon (Corstorphine AAC) 00:35:17, 3 Irvine Welsh (Gala Harriers) 00:35:25, 4 Bruce Ronaldson (Spark RC) 00:35:47, 5 Colin Donnelly (Cambuslang Harriers) 00:36:03, 6 Gregor Kerr (Lauderdale Limpers) 00:36:07, 7 Greg Harradine 00:36:19 (Unattached), 8 Iain Stewart (Gala Harriers) 00:36:24, 9 Isla Paterson (Gala Harriers) 00:37:25, 10 Brian Marshall (Haddington RC) 00:37:49.