Saturday 17th June, Grangemouth

We currently have just 17 athletes declaring interest to compete:

U11s: 7 girls, 1 boy
U13s: 4 girls, 0 boys
U15s: 4 girls, 1 boy

As you can see, we really need more boys out competing and also in the upper age groups.

The timetable and available events for this fixture can be found on the club website.

http://www.lasswade-ac.org.uk/…/track-field-comps…/

After a good turnout for the first fixture at Livingston, it would be great to repeat this.

Unfortunately, we’re not able to put on a minibus for Grangemouth but if you want to compete and transport is an issue please get in touch.

Friday 1st June

A glorious sunny weekend kicked off with the Glasgow Athletics Association Miler meet at Crownpoint on Friday evening. There were a number of Lasswade athletes participating and some great performances all round.

Early action included Ken retrieving Ruaridh’s club hoody from Jason who had picked it up at the last CSSL match in Linwood. Hopefully the hoody will be back with Ruaridh after its relay around the central belt.

As far as actual athletics there was a mix of 800m and 3k with u17 and u20 Scottish Championship being contested across the paced races. First in action was Sarah Tait who was in a busy mixed heat. Sarah ran well with some challenging tactical racing and finished as second senior woman with a time just 2 seconds off her PB and a seasons best.
Next up was Andrew McWilliam who was in a fast heat with another Lasswade athlete, Harry Henriksen, although Harry was running in Edinburgh Uni kit. Harry started very strongly and did well to hold on for 3rd while Andrew also had a fast start and was able to hold on for 6th place in his heat but ahead of the other u17 athletes to claim the U17 3k championship title. The open nature of the races meant that Andrew didn’t realise he had won a medal so was off on his cool down during the medal presentation so had to settle for a handshake and a gold medal at the end of the evening rather than getting to stand at the top of the podium. Surprisingly, this is not the first time this has happened…
In the 800m Alastair Scott was running at u20 in a competitive heat where almost everyone set a new PB, including Alastair dipping below 1:58 for the first time. Finishing the evening off was Greg Louden who had a solid run in a fast heat.

Well done to all the Lasswade athletes.

Scottish Schools Pentathlon

Saturday 3rd June

There were two Lasswade athletes competing in Scottish schools pentathlon at Grangemouth stadium, Beth and Emma both competing in their first multi event in u14 age group. Details are sketchy but both athletes put in some good performances across 75m hurdles, long jump, high jump, shot put and 800m. There may have been some sunburn but they both seemed to enjoy themselves despite this and will have learned a lot about the demands of multi events. Well done!

Thanks to Ken McWilliam for providing the reports.

Continuing the National Volunteers’ Week celebrations, we want to share the stories of our volunteers and how they keep the Lasswade AC wheels going!

Read stories below from a few members of our team, get to know them better and find out more about their background. You’ll be amazed at how many didn’t have athletics experience before they started!

Cathy Dickson  has been involved with the club since her daughter joined in 2011, followed by her son a couple of years later. They benefited so much from the opportunities training and competing at the club gave them that she wanted to help keep the club running for the next generation coming through. Not having much knowledge on coaching she took on the role of membership secretary. Cathy has also run for the club in several cross-country races over the years.

Ken McWilliam volunteers as coaching assistant on Monday evenings. He has been coming along to Lasswade since late 2021, following his children who had been involved for several years.

Ken doesn’t really have any background in athletics, but he has now started training with the endurance group on a Thursday and pulls on a Lasswade vest at cross country races, and more recently on the track.

 He really appreciates the commitment and joy that coaches and officials bring to the club and events, and of course encouraging the kids on their athletics journey! It’s quite a buzz seeing and hearing about their performances and rivalries!

Andy Sobik has been part of the club since its infancy and was inspired by the resourcefulness and enthusiasm for grassroots athletics by the founding members, he competed for the club on and off for 25 years.

Andy was involved in professional/amateur/masters sprinting where he acquired a great understanding and appreciation of the pleasure, drive (and pain) required as an individual or as a team/club member.

Between 2008-2020, Andy became the Lasswade AC Men’s Team manager giving the lads a fantastic opportunity to achieve some personal, team and club successes. This finally led him to taking on the senior sprints coaching supporting others to reach their potential.

Club camaraderie and sharing in the joys of personal, team, club, national and international successes of club members past and present is second to none.”

As part of National Volunteers’ Week, from June 1st to the 7th, clubs and organisations across the land will be celebrating the amazing contribution volunteers make. Here at Lasswade AC we thank each and every one of our brilliant team who give up their time to make our club function. These are our coaches, officials, committee, admin, publicity, social media………. Whatever role you play we are grateful of your efforts, THANK YOU!

When members attend training over the week, we invite them to thank their coach, or any other volunteer present. This can be by handshake, fist bump, saying thanks……. or leave a comment on this post.

We will continue the celebrations over the course of the week by hearing why our volunteers help.

Scrutinised results from the 2nd match at Linwood are below. An amazing performance from Team Lasswade saw us finish in top spot on the day. Even our officials and helpers finished on top as they added the maximum 100 points allowable towards our score!

1. Lasswade – 959 points
2. Corstorphine AC – 694
3. Inverclyde – 630
4. Garscube Harriers – 538
5. Motherwell AC – 471
6. Clydesdale Harriers – 404
7. Kirkintilloch Olympians – 164

Overall League Standings

However, we are aware that the results of the U17 Ladies 100m are missing. Emily and Evie bagged the maximum 28 points for Lasswade in this race so once these have been added we expect that Lasswade will actually be sitting in top spot overall with just one match remaining. The top two teams in the division will get promoted so it’s important that we get a good team out for the final match on Sunday 23rd July in Kilmarnock.

May 26-28th

There were lots of Lasswade athletes in action over the weekend, both near and far!

Friday night saw the first Livingston Open Graded of the season. A lovely warm night for athletics. A number of PBs for our athletes including Moray in the 600m taking 3 seconds off the time he ran less than a week ago. Will who has had a number of PBs already this season in the 400m also got a PB in the 800m running 2m13.73. Eloise faced a strong headwind in the home-straight of the 200m but still managed a new PB of 27.80m. Petter has also been trying his hand at the long jump and has been improving with each jump finished with a PB of 5.36m.

Full Results from Lasswade athletes below

Mia: 70mH (15.65s)
Moray: 600m (2:06.59 – pb), 150m (25.59s)
Petter: 200m (24.13), LJ (5.36m – pb)
Keith: 200m (26.39s)
Eloise: 200m (27.80s – pb)
Will: 800m (2:13.73 – pb)
Alec: High Jump (1.60m)

Entries are now open for the next Livingston Open Graded on the 23rd June.

On Saturday, Rowan represented Scotland in the Mountain Cup in Annecy, France and finished in 23rd place. Rowan tackled the 4.7km course which featured an 200m+ climb in 19m35s and came home as the 2nd counter for Scotland.

superTeams – Saughton Sports Complex

A glimpse into the future of Lasswade Athletics…  13 of Lasswade’s Under 12s competed at the superTEAMS event at Saughton Sports Complex in Edinburgh today.  Alisa, Cara, Corrie, Gemma, Isla all competed for the first time and did themselves proud. 

All athletes take part in three events each and performances converted into points to score points for the team.

Whilst none of our teams qualified for the finals, most of our athletes are still young enough to compete again next year (and for some, even the year after that!) so will have gained valuable experience from this time around.

Well done to all who took part and thanks to the coaches who helped prep the kids for today.  Thanks to our officials Susan and Linden and of course, our hosts (Corstorphine AAC and Harmeny AC) who organised the competition.

A reminder to all U11s, U13s and U15s…. Our next competition is the Forth Valley League on the 17^th June at Grangemouth.  The events/timetable for this match are on the website along with the sign-up form.  http://www.lasswade-ac.org.uk/club/track-field-comps-fixtures/

Saturday 20th May, 2023

After a successful first match in the CSSAL league a few weeks ago, the 2nd match took place this weekend. Nearly 40 athletes turned out to compete – one of the largest teams Lasswade have put together in recent years. The day started out looking like a repeat of the first match, with victories for Eloise in the U17 300, Will in U17 400m and Charlie and Murray in the 400m.

A head-wind in the home-straight meant that times were not going to be fast in the sprints but the Lasswade athletes were well placed in pretty much all the age groups with a good number of first places being returned. In the 800m, victories came in great style from Beth, Andrew, Bethan and Greg all front-running their way to impressive victories. Andrew, after breaking 4 mins in the 1500m when winning the East districts last week hopefully broke 2 minutes for the first time in the 800m. Final results are eagerly anticipated over the next few days.

Special mention to Ken, who in the morning of the competition reluctantly decided to pull out of his events having failed to recover from a cold that had been bugging him all week. Inspired by the fantastic performances from Beth and Andrew, Ken decided to “see what he could do” in the masters 800m. Sitting on the shoulders of the leaders for the first lap, Ken hit the front with down the back straight of the 2nd lap but despite a battling last 150m, just got pipped on the line. I’m pretty sure that a fully fit Ken would have made it a triple victory for the McWilliam household. Never the less, a great performance from Ken – well done!

Thanks to all the coaches who have helped put this amazing team together; to the officials and parents who helped on the day (Ruth, Susan, Britt, Kate, Ross, Kenny, Kelly); to all the parents, carers and grandparents who travelled across the M8 and of course to all the athletes who came out to compete.

Hopefully, the athletes who competed on the track for the first time (Campbell, Ollie, Jacob, Adrian, Ben, Katie and Bethan) will be back for more. The first one is always the hardest and you all did so well.

Our final match in the CSSAL League is on Sunday 23rd July at Kilmarnock. The track events switch to sprint hurdles, 150m/200m and 600m/1500m.

Great results from our athletes over the weekend of the 13/14th May at the East District Championships at Grangemouth. Andrew was the gold medal winner in the U17M 1500m running a PB of 3.58.37 and a Championship Best Performance. Laurence also made it through to the U17M 1500m final with a strong run.

Bethan won the bronze medal in the U17W 800m and also ran a new PB of 2.17.89 (nearly 6 seconds off her previous PB). Greg Louden and Alastair Scott both ran strongly in the Senior Men’s 800m recording 1:56.67 and 1:598.60 respectively.

Over in Kilmarnock at the National Open, Euan Hood ran the 400m in a season’s best of 53.38s.

Well done everyone.

Ramsay Blair made it through to the U17M 100m and 200m finals nursing a sore foot! Eloise Scott also made it through to the final of the U17W 300m and finished a strong 4th with a PB of 43.57.

Yvie won the U13 girls high jump with 1.32m and also came 5th in the final of the 200m having run a PB of 29.75s in the heats

Well done everyone!

Provisional team scores from the Forth Valley League, Division 2 match on 23rd April….

1st – Falkirk – 423 pts
2nd – Haddington – 376.5 pts
3rd – Lasswade – 350.5 pts
4th – Harmeny B – 258.5 pts
5th – Lothian – 222.5 pts
6th – Livingston – 213 pts
7th – Dunbar – 157 pts
8th – Central B – 80 pts

Well done everyone – this is a great result for the team! I hope we can get another strong team out for the next FVL competition on Saturday, 17th June.