In an action packed weekend the girls led the way for Helensburgh, taking the bronze medals in their age-group at the West District Cross Country Championships.

The trio packed well in their four kilometre race with Melissa leading them home in 12th place with a time of 14 minutes 14 seconds.

Mhairi followed in 17th place with 14:47 while Kara secured 20th just four seconds behind.

A team total of 49 points edged out Victoria Park City of Glasgow by just one point, re-enforcing the team message in these events to fight to the line for every place.

Earlier, Charlotte Caskie had produced what turned out to be the Burgh’s best individual performance of the day, finishing 10th in the largest field of the day amongst the Juniors after 86 athletes lined up for the under-13 girls race.

Charlotte clocked 11:44 for the three kilometre loop and had solid backing from the rest of an impressive six-strong Burgh squad.

Sorcha Hicks in 30th (12:46) and Charlie Bridges in 34th (13:00) took an excellent sixth place for the scoring team and were followed by Jessica Noble, 38th (13:08), Rachael McKillop, 49th (13:32) and Antonia Burns, 67th (14:32).

Michael Miller was the Burgh’s sole representative in the under-13 boys race over the same 3k loop. Hampered at the start he found himself in the middle of the 64-strong field after the first couple of hundred metres but gradually worked his way through to finish 17th in 11:05.

Gregor Chambers, in the under-15 boys race over 4K was another to come unstuck early on. In fact it was his shoe that came unstuck — evidence of the boggy nature of the rugged trail alongside the East Ayrshire Athletics Arena in Kilmarnock.

Undaunted, Gregor bravely carried on minus the shoe to finish 44th of the 61 starters in 14:31. Three places behind Bruce Cromar finished in 15:03.

Moving up to the under-17 age-group Megan Robertson faced a 5K cross-country for the first time and acquitted herself well finishing 17th of 26 competitors in a time of 21:49.

These West District Championships serve as qualifying races for the Inter-District races to be held in Edinburgh in January. With automatic selection going to the top fifteen in each race, Charlotte Caskie and Melissa Robinson have guaranteed their places while Michael Miller, Mhairi Cromar and Megan Robertson will wait with fingers crossed for a call-up from the reserve list.