GALA'S golden girls took the top spot on the podium yet again as the cross country season kicked off at Glamis Castle.

The Harriers veteran team of Jenny Forbes, Gillian Duncan and Kate Jenkins were victorious after recording the fastest combined time in the masters section.

More than a thousand athletes lined up for the men's, women's, boys' and girls' races at Saturday’s East District Cross Country relays.

For the triumphant Harriers, Jenny completed her lap in 15.45, with Gillian crossing the line in 17.05, and Kate in 16.16 to record an overall time of 49.06 and land the team a masters gold medal.

There was also a medal for West Linton's Ross Wolfenden who led out the Lasswade boys team as they finished second behind Edinburgh AC.

The Gala Harriers veteran men's team were agonisingly close to securing a bronze medal, coming 4th overall.

Gary Trewartha, Craig Mattocks, Rory Campbell and Jamie McGowan, missed out on a podium place by less than 30 seconds after coming in as fourth masters team, and 20th overall.

And Peebles student Sophie Collins also just missed out on a medal after her Edinburgh University B team finished fifth in the women's race.

The Gala Harriers senior women’s team came 8th overall with Kirstin Maxwell recording a time of 15.21, Zoe Pflug 15.45, and Sara Green 15.33, completing the three laps in an impressive time of 46.39.

The Harrier’s young male team had a medal in sight with all three athletes recording incredible runs over the 2500m laps.

Ewan Christie ran the second fastest time in the U13 age group (9.16), with U15 runner Evan McConnell completing the course in 9.53 and Yousuf Khursheed (U17) running the third fastest time of 8.33 for his age group.

The team were fifth overall finishing in a total time of 27.42.

The club’s B team also performed well with Cameron Rankine (U13), Ewan Purves (U15) and James Logan (U17) coming 24th overall in a total time of 30.17.

The young female team were 20th overall with Anna Fairclough (U13) running a lap of 11.50, Mairi Forbes (U15) 11.20, and Eilidh Forbes 10.32, completing the three laps in 33.42.

The club’s senior men's A team, consisting of Darrel Hastie, Andrew Lawrie, Callum Tharme and Fergus Johnston, secured 12th position.

Callum (U20) recorded a sub-13 minute time of 12.57, with Darrel completing the course in 13.04, Andrew in 14.01, and Fergus in 15.02 – a total time of 55.04.

The C team, Yan Horsburgh, Tony Lunn, Billy McCulloch and Ian Maxwell, were 9th masters team and 35th overall.

The East XC league starts next weekend with the first leg being held in Stirling.