The Lindsays Cross Country Season for 2024-25 was another big hit with Scottish Athletics clubs across mud and grass over the length and breadth of Scotland. This year, the series also reached far and wide online - our events really started to gain viral traction with 3.1 million views of Lindsays XC content across all channels.
Scottish Athletics have compiled figures for social media reach and impact from the various #LindsaysXC season events at 10 different venues. Over 90 clubs were represented in our finishers tables in the Lindsays Trophy and entry numbers were really strong again – particularly for the Lindsays Short Course XC event.
It was a special day in Kirkcaldy, where Lindsays was proud to support Laura Muir as she belatedly received a European Indoors medal in front of thrilled young admirers at a muddy public park in Fife. Video content and posts from that day and others like the big one – the Lindsays National XC at Falkirk in February – have contributed to significant social media impact.
Here are the highlights from 2024-25:
- *Over 3.1 million views of Lindsays XC content across all channels
- *42.8k views Lindsays XC news stories on Scottish Athletics website
- *28.7k minutes of video content watched across Facebook and YouTube alone
- *239k views of live event content via Instagram Stories
“We are absolutely delighted with this kind of reach and the figures are impressive," said Peter Jardine, Head of Communications with Scottish Athletics.
“The first point to note is: these are only across the Scottish Athletics platform and we know #LindsaysXC content appears in a number of other places (like national and regional media) and have seen growth there, too.
“There was also huge reach and engagement across Twitter (X) but we don’t have access to all the analytics there.
“Best of all, I think the online impact underlines what we know from being at the events throughout the Lindsays Cross Country Season – that there is great appetite for cross country in Scotland and that #LindsaysXC has become a recognisable brand both within our sport and beyond.
“That has not happened overnight and a number of years of hard work and great support from Lindsays has created this impetus and momentum.
“Scottish Athletics has been pushing into more social media channels in recent months so it is really exciting to look ahead to 2025-26.’
Ian Beattie, our Chief Operating Officer, said: “We are very proud of our association with Scottish Athletics and the Lindsay XC season. It’s fantastic to see the series continue going from strength-to-strength.
“The increase in people viewing and engaging with XC content on social media - and in the ways in which we see the events covered across all sorts of other media - demonstrates the status with which they are held.
“People clearly enjoy being part of the season and sharing the great news, pictures and other content that comes from it. With traction like that, the success of the competition stands every chance of growing even further.”
The next season of Lindsays XC events starts on Saturday 11 October the three District Cross Country Relay Championships – East (Livingston), West (Kilmarnock) and North (Inverness).
*Note: The highlights above were collated on 10 March 2025. So, for instance, video content from the Lindsays National XC had only been running for three weeks at that stage. Obviously the earlier events in the season had run for longer.
Article photo: Jamie Crowe leads Central AC to victory at Lindsays National XC Relays last year - with the Cumbernauld event part of a huge reach for #LindsaysXC (photo by Bobby Gavin)
