IT has been a long wait due to emergency hospitalisation of the league’s results official but three weeks down the line it has now been confirmed that Team Borders are Forth Valley League Champions for 2019.

It is their fifth consecutive title success.

But it was a close finish with Team Borders only edging the title on countback after finishing level on match points for the season with Edinburgh AC.

Going into the final match, Team Borders sat top of the league on 11 match points, just one match point ahead of Edinburgh, with Pitreavie lurking in the wings only one further point back.

With these two title challengers both scoring well in the early track events, it looked sure to go down to the wire and the closing 4x100m relays to determine who would run out league champions for 2019.

In the end it was Edinburgh who secured the match win after three relay wins to two from Team Borders, but their margin of victory in this match was just two event points, 469 points to the Team Borders’ tally of 467 points.

Pitreavie were a close third on 456 points.

That meant six match points going Edinburgh’s way, and five to Team Borders, resulting in both teams finishing the league on 16 match points.

That being the case, the final placings in the league, and the title of 2019 Champions, fell to be determined by the overall event points scored across all three of this summer’s matches. This saw Team Borders come out on top with 1,086.5 points to Edinburgh’s 1,054 points.

So eventually it is a sunny end to what was a gloriously sunny competition day at Grangemouth which was matched by some glorious performances by Team Borders athletes, some scoring well in their favoured events and others willingly taking on the challenge of unfamiliar events for what proved to be very valuable team points.

Mention must be made of Filip Kubicki (Gala) who scored four ‘A’ wins in the U13 Boys age-group – a 100m/200m sprint double in 13.1s and 26.9s, the Shot Putt with 9.48m and the 4x100m relay.

And there were further ‘A’ wins for Grace McWhinnie (TLJT) in the U13 Girls 200m in 29.3s, Conan Harper (Teviotdale) in the U15 Boys 1500m (NT), and Erin Gray (Gala) in the U13 Girls Discus with 12.63m.

But the emphasis was on the overall team effort and every single one of the thirty-nine Team Borders athletes who gave of their best at this match, and others who contributed at the previous two matches, to gather as many points for the team as possible.