A TOTAL of 18 Borders fitness fanatics will be heading over the Irish Sea later this month.

Tweedbank-based RDAS Cross-fit entered six mixed teams in the qualifying rounds of this season's Celtic Cup.

Rigorous circuits of strength, agility and speed sort of the very best to compete in the Dublin finals.

And, remarkably, all six teams from the Borders gymnasium have qualified.

Neil Davidson from RDAS told us: "Since moving to Tweedbank from our old premises in Selkirk our members have benefitted from a better training facility and being able to undertake a more effective programme due to the bigger space.

"We had six teams of three athletes doing the qualifier workouts - as were hundreds of other teams around Europe - and to our complete surprise, which just shows the dedication of our members and the quality of our training, all of them reached the finals."

The six teams who qualified for the Celtic Cup finals are Lizzie Riding, Michaela White and Chris Cook; Vic Forbes, James Donaldson and Rachael McDonald; Suzanne Douglas, Jayson Shaw and David Riddell; Laura Douglas, Sarah Bruce and Mark McCall ; Kenny Gibson, Jill Robson and Angie Lauder; and Lianne Wallace, Barry Hume and Stevie Rayner.

Neil added: "I am absolutely gobsmacked at our gym's performance in the qualifiers.

"The members are training hard in the run up to the finals."

The Celtic Cup Crossfit finals take place on Saturday, January 20.

Everyone’s excited and for most it is their first competition so the nerves are setting in.

appy New Year to you and hope all is well.

Just a small follow up email from my last update.

Since moving to Tweedbank our members have benefitted from a better training facility and being able to undertake a more effective programme due to the bigger space.

In regard to The Celtic Cup qualifiers that I mentioned in the last email, we had 6 teams of 3 athletes ( 2 males and one female or 2 female and 1 male) doing qualifier workouts as were hundreds of other teams around Europe

To our complete surprise, which just shows the dedication of our members and the quality of our training, all 6 teams have qualified.

This means a gym road trip to Dublin for the finals on 20th of this month. As owner and head coach, I am absolutely gobsmacked at our gyms performance in the qualifiers and the members are training hard on the run up to the finals as they do not know what it will entail..........as normal they are training by doing everything.

Just a pity I am not competing now as my mountain bike injury from last yr has proved to be a competitive career stopper. Great to see everyone else continuing to improve and get on to the European stage though.

Regards

Neil