PUPILS from Beaconhurst were among those from 50 schools who swam and ran in the 2017 Scottish National Schools Aquathlon Championships.

The school’s athletes, including triathlon scholars, all showed great prowess at the event which was run by Triathlon Scotland in collaboration with Beaconhurst and the University of Stirling.

And at the end of the day, there was a medal for Tom Graham-Marr who came third in the S5/6 Boys Race.

Other notable performances came from Dan Hesp who was fourth in the S5/6 Boys Race and Ben MacMillan who was fourth in the S3/4 Boys Race.

In the girls’ competition, Carrie Banks swam and ran well to be placed sixth in the S1/2 Girls Race while Elizabeth Winton was tenth in the S3/4 Girls Race.

And in the Girls S5/6 event, Jodie Currie and Bethany Burch were placed seventh and eighth respectively.

Beaconhurst’s triathlon coach Gordon Crawford said: “We had some very solid performances all round from the Beaconhurst athletes.

“The schools’ competition has been growing and built momentum and it was great to have it in Stirling this year and for Beaconhurst to be involved in running it.”

Senior pupils from Beaconhurst helped with marshalling and lane-counting at the event and were joined by elite triathletes Grant Sheldon, Natalie Milne and Heather Howitt who also volunteered to give something back to the sport.

More than 240 pupils from across Scotland took part in the annual schools competition at Stirling's university where athletes had to swim then run.

Pupils from S1 and S2 swam 300m and ran 2km with S3/S4 athletes swimming 400m and running 3km before the final individual races saw S5/S6 pupils swimming 500m and running 4km.

As well as the individual events, pupils had the chance to take part in a mixed team relay race which comprised a 200m swim followed by a 1km run each.

Teams of four were represented by a female and male pupil from S1-S3 and a female and male pupil in S4-6.

There was a great turn-out with 17 teams from 12 schools taking part – the largest entry to date.

The winners of the relay were Erskine Stewart’s Melville Schools with George Watson’s College second and St Columba’s High School third.

Two teams from Beaconhurst competed in the relay with the A team – made up of Carrie Banks, Bruce Dickson, Ben MacMillan and Jodie Currie – coming in eighth place.

A second team – comprising Elise Graham-Marr, Elizabeth Winton, Tom Graham-Marr and Logan Downie – was placed twelfth.