Gala Harriers under-17 Seb Darlow top of his class in Scottish Athletics’ 2025 junior hill-running league after win at Braemar

Darlow clocked a time of 20:09 to finish over half a minute in front of runner-up Rory Beattie, an under-15 at Edinburgh’s Harmeny Athletic Club, at Braemar Junior Highland Games.

He was one of half a dozen Borderers among a field of 27, the others being from Moorfoot Runners.

Moorfoot’s Jack Foley was third overall in 20:42 and his fellow under-17 clubmates Rory Oretswell, Thea Harris and Isabella Moran were respectively fifth in 21:57, seventh in 23:26 and eighth in 24:11.

Moorfoot under-15 Emma Moran was 20th in 28:17.

Saturday’s meeting marked the halfway point of the season, following races at Dumyat, near Stirling, and Falkland in Fife in April and one at Broughton in the Borders in May.

The four races to go are at Greenock and Melrose this coming Saturday and the one after, Peebles in August and Kincraig in the Highlands in September.

Darlow is now a dozen points clear at the top of the under-17 boys’ leaderboard on 57, with clubmate Charlie Dalgliesh, Central Athletic Club’s Joel Gillan and Ross County Athletics Club’s Billy Sutherland sharing second place with 45, Pretswell one place further back on 44 and Foley still in the chasing pack on 40.

Isabella Moran is second in the under-17 girls’ league with 54 points, 21 behind front-runner Anna Meek, of Inverness Harriers, with Harris third on 51.

Gala’s Annabelle Stewart is second under-15 girl on 54 points, 23 behind Florence Skinner, of Glasgow’s Garscube Harriers, with Moorfoot’s Emma Moran fourth on 43.

Her clubmate Angus McCarthy is the only Borderer in the top ten of the under-15 boys’ standings, sitting sixth on 40 points, 35 shy of first-placed Francis Ovani-Finnegan, of Lasswade Athletic Club.