Young gun Douglas goes for it at Morebattle Border Games
Kelso’s Douglas Young went one better than his second place in Morebattle Border Games’ senior 400m race last year by finishing first this time round on Saturday.
Young, representing his home-town’s Addie Gray Running School, clocked a time of 52.53 seconds, going from scratch, to claim podium top spot after having to settle for second place behind Hawick’s Daniel Paxton at 2025’s games, also from scratch.
That run earned him prize money of £100 and the award for senior performance of the day too.
It was his second win of this summer’s eight-round games circuit following one over 200m at Kelso in June.
Hawick runners Kyle Potts and Mark Young ended up second and third respectively, both from starts of 27m.
The biggest prize of the day, £750 for winning the event’s 110m open sprint, went to Edinburgh Athletic Club’s Rory Smith.
His winning time was 12.13 seconds, from a mark of 4.5m, and second and third places went to Kelso’s Ruby Laing and John Fleming, going from 21.5m and 11.5m.
The two second-biggest prizes of the afternoon, £200, went to Jedburgh’s Zoe Blair and Tweed Leader Jed Track’s Katie Cessford for placing first over 200m and 800m respectively.
Blair, handicapped at 36m, went the remaining distance in 22.65 seconds to cross the finishing line ahead of TLJT’s Tess Renwick in second place and Edinburgh’s Graeme Armstrong in third, going from 29m and 38m.
Cessford, given a mark of 185m, clocked 1:54.19 to get the better of Hawick’s Rory Anderson, runner-up from 40m, and Kelso’s Matty Fleming, third from 95m.
Hawick’s Irvine Welsh won the day’s other senior race, a 1,600m open, in 4:21.04, from a 155m mark.
Fellow Hawick runner Greg Walker was second from 110m and Kelso’s Oliver Hastie was third from 65m.
Gala Harriers’ Thomas Graham won two of eight accompanying junior races, over 200m and 400m, with respective times of 23.69 seconds and 51.31 second, going from 48m and 102m, and also picked up the prize for youth performance of the day.
Half a dozen other children’s races yielded wins for Kelso’s Elsie Douglas and Ben Nairn over 90m in 9.81 seconds and 10.03 seconds, from 30m and 5m; TLJT’s Isla Woodburn over 200m in 23.72 seconds, from 41m; Hawick’s Max Vevers over 400m in 50.40 seconds, from 64m; Kelso’s Harris Smith over 800m in 1:55.75, from 200m; and Hawick’s Greg Watson over 1,600m in 4:34.54, from 80m.