The National Short Course Cross Country Championships took place yesterday at Kirkcaldy High School. It was a mild and dry day, the course was good underfoot with the exception of a section in the far corner that was quite muddy.
There were 17 athletes from Lasswade competing with 4 medals and lots of strong performances in large and high quality fields.
The first race of the day was the under 15 girls and Freya Brown continued her strong form with a comfortable win in the u15 girls race over 2k. Cerys Wright followed her home in 2nd place. There was good support from Beth McWilliam in 28th and Emma Thomson in 35th. The team won silver medals, just 3 points behind 1st.
Next off was the u15 boys, with two athletes from Lasswade Josh Cooper and Finlay Troup, who both had strong runs to finish in 47th and 54th respectively.
Bethan Kitchin was our sole runner in the u17 women which was the next race to the start line and she finished fast in 29th place.
The races were coming fast and the u17 men were next and it produced a great team performance with Charlie Copp 24th, Laurence Ward 32nd, Jake Page 41st and Elliot Cameron 61st.
Olivia Meikle placed really highly in the senior women’s race over 4k – coming 66th and 17th u20. Kate Kitchin backed her up in 226th and 36th v40.
The final race and biggest field of the day were the senior/ junior men. Andrew McWilliam led the field to the first corner and was rewarded with a fine 20th overall and bronze in the u20 category. Behind him came Rowan Taylor in 9th u20 and Innes Wright a few seconds back in 13th. The men’s team was completed by veteran Andy Brown who was 12th in his age category with team finishing 12th.
Well done to club member Harry Henriksen finishing 9th overall representing Edinburgh University.
It was also great to see Christian Graham at the event spectating, hopefully we’ll see more of him at training over the coming weeks and months as his recovery progresses.
Overall another great day out for Lasswade cross country team.
The first East District League match of this season took place at Beveridge Park, Kirkcaldy on Saturday. We were very fortunate with the weather as it was dry, mild and sunny.
It was great to see so many Lasswade AC athletes competing, we had a total of 32 athletes over all the age groups, with some great performances and a number of our teams are sitting near the top of the league table after the first match.
Thanks to everyone that came along and supported the club in the league. Congratulations to all the athletes on their performances.
It’s that time of year when we start planning for the Lasswade 10, our annual road race that will take place on Sunday 2nd March, 2025. We’re looking for some more volunteers to join the organising team this year to help spread the load. Please get in touch (chair@lasswade-ac.org.uk) if you can help.
The race helps raise funds for the club and enables us to put on events like the club track competition and enter the different cross country and track and field leagues.
The National Cross Country Relays were once again at Cumbernauld on 19 October and Lasswade AC had a number of teams competing in all age groups. It was a mild and beautiful sunny day although the course was quite muddy and wet in sections with the recent wet weather.
The first race of the day was the young females and hopes were high after our young females recent performance in the East District Relays championships where they won gold, however there was a change to the team for the National Relays as Freya Brown was unavailable as she was away on holiday.
Our u13 runner Isla Madhra got the team off to a flying start finishing 2nd on the first leg behind Emma Nicholson of Giffnock. Under 15 Cerys Wright was on our second leg going off a few seconds behind Lucy Tonner of Giffnock but she quickly pulled that lead back and ran an outstanding race to hand over to our third leg runner u17 Bethan Kitchin with a lead of 55 seconds. Bethan made sure she didn’t go off too hard and paced her race perfectly to bring the team home in 1st place to win gold! An excellent start to the day. Our other girls team of Esme Scott, Darcy Esson and Beth McWilliam finished in 50th place.
Bethan crossing the finish line!Lasswade Girls – Champions!
The second race of the day was the young males and Lasswade AC we were down to one team as one of our under 15 boys was ill so had to withdraw on Friday. Our lead off u13 runner was Fraser Houston who ran well handing over to Struan Milne our second leg runner in 32nd place. Struan had a good run and was 20th quickest u15 of the day to set our final leg runner Charlie Copp off in 29th place. Under 17 Charlie running strongly pulled back another five places to finish in 24th place out of 55 teams.
Next to the start line it was the turn of the Ladies and Lasswade AC had one team with u20 Olivia Meikle leading them off. Olivia a little nervous going off first had a solid run to hand over to second leg runner Amy Frankland in 32nd place. Amy set off on a mission and had a great run with the 4th quickest time on the 2nd leg she tore through the field pulling back 19 places to hand over in 13th place. Our third leg runner was Cathy Dickson V50 who ran well to keep the team just outside the top 20 in 21st place, still in the top third of the field of 73 teams. On the glory leg was Claire Houston v40 who ran well to almost maintain our position finishing in 23rd place. A great effort by the team with a lady from each age group.
The final race of the day was the senior men and we had two teams. I’d hoped to have one team of u20 only but unfortunately we were one short as our fourth u20 was on holiday. I was keen to see how far up the field the boys could get so ran the three u20 men first with Innes Wright leading them off with a fine run coming home in 15th place to hand on to Rowan Taylor. Rowan had a good run to pull back a couple of places and hand on to 3rd leg runner Andrew McWilliam in 13th place. Andrew looking strong ran the 5th quickest time on leg 3 to pull the team inside the top 10 and hand onto final leg runner Gareth Fleming in 9th place. Gareth had a solid run and kept us inside the top 20 bringing the team home in 19th place.
Our second team made up primarily of masters finished 73rd of the 115 teams. Scott Dickson V50 finished 91st on first leg to hand on to Ken McWilliam. Ken v45 ran the quickest leg of the runners in the second team and pulled back 13 places to hand on to Steve Brown v55 in 78th place. Steve ran well to hold the position and hand on to final leg runner Euan Hood. Euan coming back from injury managed to pull back another five places to finish in 73rd place.
Lasswade athlete Harry Henriksen ran well for Edinburgh University on the third leg pulling them up from 6th to 3rd place and running the 2nd quickest time on leg 3. It was also good to see Alastair Scott running for his university Stirling.
Congratulations and well done to all the athletes. Thanks to Megan for bringing the tent and club flag today and everyone else for their help and support.
Hope to see you next week at Kirkcaldy.
Photographs courtesy of Neil Renton and Bobby Gavin
Our Thursday Multi-Events group coaches are having a well deserved break on the Thursday 17th October. All other groups are training as usual but it would be good if athletes/parents/carers could use the Teams App to confirm attendance.
Anyone wishing to join us for Andy’s Pool Night social at the Ball Room, Meadowbank, please email chair@lasswade-ac.org.uk. There are only 32 spaces available and tickets are just £6. This will take the usual format of three “competitions” over the course of the evening with a short presentation afterwards.
Save the date! Andy Sobik is organising his annual pool night. This is open to over 16s (under 18s with parental permission) and parents are welcome to join in too. Only 32 spaces available though and just £6 per person. Donations for prizes welcome.
Venue: The Ball Room Sports Bar, Meadowbank. Date: Wednesday 23rd October, Time TBC.
A big thank you to all the volunteers who helped at the club competition this year. At one point, the number of volunteers who had offered to help outnumbered the athletes but a last minute surge of entries meant that for we had 87 athletes turnout to compete on the night. There were still plenty of athletes who missed out we hope that they can make it next year and we can break the magic 100 competitors! As well as all the volunteers on the night, a special Thank You to Susan who put in a lot of time to organise the event again this year. Although it’s the 3rd year that we’ve had the Club Competition in it’s current format, it doesn’t get any easier to organise so any offers to help for next years event are greatly welcomed.
It was an event that very nearly didn’t happen. Just a few weeks before the competition, the campus had a few “guests” which meant that the high jump could have involved jumping over a washing line and saying the weather this summer hasn’t been the best would have been an understatement. Fortunately, although a bit gusty, the rain held off for a good night of friendly competition.
The club competition gives some of younger athletes who have yet to compete for the club an opportunity to see what a proper athletics competition would be like, in a friendly and supportive environment and for those who already compete for the club, maybe an opportunity to try a new event. It was good to hear of athletes proudly going to school the next day to show off their medals and hopefully the first of many medals to come.
Although the outdoor track season is almost done and dusted, the cross country season and indoor athletics season will soon be upon us so there are still plenty of opportunities to compete for the club. Check out the Cross Country and Indoor Athletics fixtures pages or speak to the coaches.
Track Photos
Field Photos
Presentations
Photos courtesy of Terry Sullivan and Barry Munro.
The relevant pages on the website have been updated for the Cross Country and Indoor seasons. Please follow the link below for details of dates, venues and how to declare your availability. PLEASE NOTE ANY CLOSING DATES
Cross Country East District Relays closing 18th Sept
What a day! Saturday morning started with frantic attempts to help the Forth Valley League organisers source electronic race starting equipment which ultimately fell through and resulted in all races having to be started with a whistle. Whilst this likely means that all the race times are ineligible for the Power of 10 rankings, the day will remain memorable for some great performances and to make up for the rain-soaked CSSAL fixture the previous Sunday, finally some great weather! ?
Warpaint ready!
The first race of the day saw Elsa take on the 70m Hurdles, her first attempt at the event. It was a great effort – an event that is not for the feint-hearted, Elsa safely crossed the line in 16,3 seconds.
In the U15 Girl’s Discus Megan and Emma took 2nd place in both the A & B events, only beaten by the Cumbernauld athletes who both broke the previous FVL League record. Megan smashed her PB by over 4m.
Lara, in the U11 800m ran nearly 10 seconds faster than her time from last season to finish 2nd and won the long jump with 3.78m (no official rankings for the U11 age group, but this would probably put Lara in the top 10 nationally).
Having already won the U15s 800m with ease, Cerys may have found another talent in the high jump clearing 1.40m in her first ever high jump competition!
I could sing the praises of the entire team of 28 athletes competing but special mention should go to Finlay who has been desperately waiting to run in his first race for Lasswade for a long time now (well, what would seem like a long time for a 9 year old!) but only became old enough to compete recently. A gun whistle to tape victory in the U11s 800m clocking 2m41.4 and followed up with a victory in the ‘B’ 200m, Finlay certainly had a day to remember.
Provisional Results seems to show us finishing in 3rd place on the day and 3rd in Division 2 overall.
As always, special thanks for our Officials and parent helpers. We probably set another record with the number of officials and helpers… Ruth, Linden, Susan, Megan W, John, Harry, Alison were our qualified officials. Ken, Keith and Ainslie helped on the discus and Megan McLaughlin assisted with the results.
This season saw the introduction of the Spirit of the League awards for two athletes who demonstrated outstanding commitment to their training and competition and supporting their teammates. These awards are very special to Lasswade AC as they in memory of two of the Forth Valley League’s biggest supporters, Kenny Marshall and Angela McLaughlin, who were also Lasswade members.
Division 1 winner of the “Kenny Marshall Spirit of the League Award” was Ade Okunfolami from Corstorphine Athletics Club
Division 2 winner of the “Angela McLaughlin Spirit of the League Award” was Natalie Pilcher from Harmeny Athletic Club.
