Scotland take the win in the Veteran Home Internationals

Every year in the autumn the Veteran Home Internationals (VHIs) are held and sees senior athletes from M/W40 through to M/W70 come together to compete. Scotland, England, Ireland and Wales come together with 24 athletes each and the event circulates around the countries

This year the VHIs were held alongside the Junior European Championships (JEC) in the Trossachs with the individual races taking place in Loch Ard by Aberfoyle and the relays taking place in Fairy Knowe/Doon Hill. Starting on the Saturday the veterans missed out on the monsoonal rains which the juniors endured in the sprint race around Stirling University brought by Storm Amy on the Friday and other than avoiding fallen trees they did not have the full force of the weather to content with over the weekend.

On the Saturday at Loch Ard the day was split with the Scottish Men winning the mens team race with England in second but England won the womens team race overall with Scotland in second. When the points achieved in the individual event were collated this meant that England lead overnight with Scotland in second place, Wales in third and Ireland in fourth.

Sunday, with the relay arena having dried out after the flooding from Storm Amy and the fallen trees having been cleared to allow access into the event, the teams convened in Fairy Knowe/ Doon Hill for the relay. At the relay event the teams run 4 teams with Man/ Woman/ Man respectively running and 4 teams with Woman/ Man/Woman respectively running. Scotland came in 1st and 2nd place in the Man/ Woman/Man relay and 1st place and 5th in the Woman/ Man/Woman relay. When the overall scores were counted this meant that Scotland won the relays but Scotland and England tied for the overall result. In this event there is a countback of the most wins overall across the 16 classes including the relays which meant that Scotland took home the trophy for the overall win.