scottishathletics are thrilled to confirm a new contract with sponsors Lindsays to cover the Scottish Cross Country Season for the next four years.

The agreement with the legal firm will run until the end of the 2022-23 season and will conclude with the Lindsays National XC in February 2023 and the presentation of the Lindsays Trophy thereafter.

It’s five years now since scottishathletics entered into partnership with Lindsays for the Lindsays Cross Country Season and it has been a mutually beneficial link-up which will now run to just short of a decade and become one of the longest-running sponsorships in Scottish sport.

The original plan was for three seasons from 2014-15 but that was quickly extended and now, following more discussions, the new four-year agreement to 2023 gives the governing body significant certainty around our XC event-planning and promotion.

Raising the profile of events like the Lindsays National XC and growing participation were clear goals and there’s little doubt those have been achieved.

Photo: Bobby Gavin/scottishathletics

25-year record high for entries

Event entries have been at a 25-year high for the past couple of years and the most recent Lindsays Trophy featured exactly 100 clubs with at least one representative across the three main National XC events in Scotland during the winter programme.

The Lindsays Masters XC Champs in January will now be added to the Lindsays portfolio for each of the next four years to create the following schedule:

October – Lindsays National XC Relays

November – Lindsays Short Course XC Champs

December – Lindsays District XC Champs

January – Lindsays Masters XC Champs

February – Lindsays National XC Champs

May – Presentation of the Lindsays Trophy to winning club

Another four years of support

Ian Beattie, Chief Operating Officer of Lindsays and chair of scottishathletics, said: ‘We’re delighted to be supporting the scottishathletics Cross Country Season for another four years.

‘This is an important sponsorship for Lindsays and we value the opportunity to continue our very successful partnership with scottishathletics.

‘Cross country continues to have a positive impact in local communities across Scotland thanks to the commitment of the clubs, their supporters and members.

‘We’re delighted to continue to play a part in that.’

Helping build a brighter future for Scottish XC runners

Mark Munro, chief executive of scottishathletics, is pleased and feels the partnership over the past few years has helped us as a governing body and the sport itself to advance our Cross Country Season in various ways.

‘We’re really excited to announce this new agreement with Lindsays as our Cross Country Season sponsors,’ said Mark.

‘Sponsorship support is vital for a governing body like ourselves and this new deal means our partnership with Lindsays will run to a minimum of nine years.

‘If you look at recent years, the growth in participation and exposure for events like the National XC Relays at Cumbernauld and the National itself at Falkirk has happened in tandem with the sponsorship from Lindsays. I think the Short Course XC has been a huge success in that time, too.

‘It’s helping us create bigger and better events for our members and grow areas like video coverage, delayed stream and drone footage, which we have had in the past couple of years at Falkirk.

‘The Lindsays Trophy itself challenges clubs to invite athletes to commit to competition and that’s exactly what we want to see.’

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