Peebles produced enough pupil power to once again claim the secondary schools title.

And it was the athletes from Kingsland, also in Peebles, who lifted the primary title.

Athletics Development Group spokesman Gregor Nicholson told us: “We’ve witnessed another fantastic day of running at Netherdale and whilst the attention inevitably falls on the individual and team medallists, over 500 young runners from right across the Scottish Borders have demonstrated commitment, respect and camaraderie which they and their schools can be proud of.

“It’s an event which is made possible only with the support of many, including the HND sports students from Borders College, Borders Sport and Leisure Trust, Gala RFC, Scottish Borders Council and our fantastic team of volunteer helpers and marshals. We are very grateful to them all.” Having been postponed due to heavy snow in January, the championships eventually took place last week.

Organised by the Scottish Borders Athletics Development Group with a little help from Borders Sport and Leisure, the region’s rising stars of distance athletics were on show.

The P6 Boys race over 2km started the day’s proceedings and produced one of the best races of the day.

Gregor Collins from St Peter’s led the field through halfway but was being closely tracked by Murray Aiken from Priorsford. These two distanced the field and with 500 metres to go Aiken had taken over and steadily opened a small gap.

But Collins dug in to hold the gap to 20 metres and approaching the home turn with 100 metres to go the burners were suddenly turned on and to the delight of his chanting schoolmates an impressive turn of speed down the short home straight saw him pass Aiken to take the title.

Spencer Ramsay from Kingsland won a very tight three-way battle for the bronze and led his school to the team win.

It was a completely different story in the P6 Girls race with Madeline Collins from Kingsland leading from gun to tape and finishing unchallenged with an impressive 24 second margin over schoolmate Erin Fulton. Earlston’s Samantha Dagg wasn’t that far behind in third, just edging out West Linton’s Olivia Harrison with a finishing sprint. Not surprisingly, Kingsland ran out comfortable winners of the team prize.

The P7 races proved very similar with a closely fought boys race and a runaway girls winner. West Linton’s Michael Girdler, recently returned from several years in Australia, took the boys’ title not far ahead of Cameron Fowler form Eyemouth and Jai Patterson from Drumlanrig. Kingsland again took the team spoils.

And in the P7 Girls race, Hannah Little was the clear-cut victor, impressing with a 16 second margin over Madison Hewitt who made the long journey from Newcastleton as the school’s one and only representative. Charlotte Morrison from West Linton held on for the bronze ahead of team-mate Kerdy MacDonald.

A 1-3-4 saw West Linton streak away with the team title.

For the overall Primaries Championship, with scores accumulated across all four races, Kingsland were crowned 2015 Champions with 150 points ahead of Melrose on 223 points and Earlston on 243.

The afternoon action kicked off with the S1 races over 2km.

The improving Ethan Elder from Peebles applied the pressure from half-way and gradually pulled away for a strong looking win over the Berwickshire duo of Rory Williams and Jamie Kinghorn. It was a close-run thing between these two schools for the team title with Peebles just edging it by two points.

The secondary boys and girls races were run concurrently and Beth Hobbs from Peebles stunned many by winning the S1 Girls race with only the first three boys ahead of her.

Fresh from their title success earlier this month in the Scottish Schools Cross-Country Championships it was no surprise to see Peebles lift the team prize with a 1-2-3 courtesy of Hobbs, Molly Falconer and Charlotte Clare. Just for good measure they also had the fourth finisher in Elena McGorum.

Josh Abbott got Kelso on the board with a 10 second victory in the S2 Boys 3km race ahead of Euan Hood from Peebles and Earlston’s Yousuf Khurshead. The finishing order was reversed in the team race with Peebles edging out Kelso by two points.

Anna McGorum from Peebles is more used to winning on two wheels or on the netball court but was an impressive winner of the S2 Girls race with a 22 second margin over Rhiannon Fagan from Earlston and Lindsay Jack from Selkirk.

These two latter schools fought out the team race with another close affair just going Earlston’s way.

Matt Dougal from Galashiels also had a 22 second winning margin in the S3 Boys race ahead of Berwickshire’s Callum Tharme and James Logan, also from Galashiels, who comfortably took the team title.

On the comeback trail after an interrupted winter, Zaynah Aziz from Selkirk ran out the S3 Girls winner ahead of Mairi Wallace from Peebles and Katie Rourke from Earlston.

Peebles had a six point winning margin over Selkirk for the team title.

And the Open Girls title also went Selkirk’s way, Zoe Pflug showing a clean pair of heels to win from Peebles’ Niamh Shaw and Linsey Young from Kelso.

But again Peebles had the marginally better strength in depth to take the team trophy.

The Open Boys race, over 4km, proved to be an enthralling tactical affair with a six-strong lead group, comprising mostly seasoned cross-country runners who knew each other well, approached the half-way mark locked together at a very comfortable pace.

Benjamin Hindley from Peebles took the initiative and injected some pace and the six soon became five, but still tightly grouped. The tempo increased again as the last lap loomed it was Hindley himself who was next to drop off, leaving Thomas Otton from Galashiels, Gavin Bryson from Earlston and the Peebles pair of Kobe Stevens and Sam MacNeill to battle for the honours.

Down the back straight for the final time and Otton wound it up again and this time it was Bryson who didn’t have the legs as Stevens slipped by into second only a few metres adrift. But that was as close as he got as Otton relentlessly maintained his slender advantage which Stevens couldn’t quite haul back.

The Peebles trio took the team honours to round off an excellent day for the school who ran out comfortable winners of the overall Secondaries Championship.

Ewan Jackson, Chief Executive of co-organisers Borders Sport and Leisure, added: “This was another great cross-country championship and an impressive example of sporting partnerships in action.

“As a charitable trust we aim to use the resources available to us to enable as many people as possible to get active and this event plays an important part in introducing young people to competitive sport.

“To have over 500 runners involved is an incredible achievement and we are committed to continuing to provide the resource and input needed to grow and develop this championship for the future.”