LASSWADE ATHLETIC CLUB

It was back to Callender Park, Falkirk once again this year for the National cross country championships, the finale to the Scottish domestic cross country season. The conditions on the day were much better than last year. It was a dry day, not too cold and the course was in good condition for some fast running!

Lasswade AC had athletes competing in most races but no complete team in any age group which was disappointing.

The first race of the day was the U13 girls and there were three Lasswade athletes in the race. Leading the girls home was Beth McWilliam in 23rd place with team mate Emma Thomson in 46th place and Eilidh Mowbray in 73rd place.

It was the turn of the U13 boys next with three Lasswade athletes competing in the National for the first time. First home was Francis Ovanni-Finnegan in 42nd place with Struan Milne close behind in 52nd place and Finlay Troup just a little further back in 73rd place.

In the U15 girls race we had three Lasswade athletes, Freya Mowbray, Bethan Kitchin and Abbie Foster. Freya had a solid run to finish in 17th place, Bethan was next home in 35th place with Abbie taking one for the team coming home in 120th.

Laurence Ward and Kieran Glass were our two athletes in the U15 boys race. Laurence was first home in with a good run in 27th place and Kieran finishing 75th place in his first National.

In the u17 boys we had three athletes competing. Andrew McWilliam had a good race in a strong field to finish 7th. Rowan Taylor was next home in 25th place with team mate Sam Kitchin in 56th place.

Alastair Scott was our sole athlete in the Men’s U20 race. Alastair finished in 49th place in his first race of the season.

In the Senior Women’s race we also had one athlete competing, Keira Gore was our only athlete who finished in 37th place.

The final race of the day was the Senior Men’s race and we had three athletes, one senior Christian Graham and two masters Martin Gore and Ken McWilliam. First home was Christian with a solid run in 13th place, Martin was next home in 209th place followed by Ken in 355th place.

A great days athletics with lots of strong performances. Hope that you all had a good day and enjoyed the days athletics. Thanks to our regular official and Chief Marshal on the day Linden Nicholson and to all of our other volunteer marshals Scott and Cathy Dickson, Stuart and Olivia Meikle and Steve Brown.

For full results please click here

Looking forward to the track season now!

22/03/2023 UPDATE: Unfortunately – this event has now been cancelled. Please see above for more details.

It’s back! A slightly later date than usual, but better late than never! On Sunday, 16th April, Lasswade AC will be hosting its popular 10 mile road race.

The race comprises a ten mile loop set in a scenic, rural location, run mainly on ‘B’ and ‘C’ class roads, and unclassified routes. Starting in Rosewell village, the route follows a gentle incline to Gourlaw Farm before dropping down to the bottom of Roslin Glen at two miles, followed by a steep rise for 400 metres, after which it is nice and easy before dropping to the four mile mark in the village of Auchendinny.  There is a climb between the fifth and six miles thereafter, apart from a small hump at around seven miles, the route is generally downhill into Rosewell.

Prizes
First 3 male, First 3 female – (Vouchers for £100, £50, £25)
First Master (over 40) Male & Female (£50 voucher)

First Male Team, First Female Team (boxed medals – 3 to count; Teams to be registered with Scottish Athletics).

Individual winners can opt to take the highest prize and forfeit the age category prize, e.g. a Master winning the Senior Men’s/Women’s Race can claim the Senior Men’s/Women’s 1st prize and forfeit the relevant Master’s 1st prize.

Don’t delay – there is a limit on numbers and there’s no entries on the day.

Congratulations to Graeme Armstrong who took double gold today in the V65 60m (8.59s) and 200m (28.86s) at the Scottish Masters Indoor Championships.

In the V45 age group, Keith Kong set a new PB to finish 5th in the 60m (7.89s) and a season’s best in the Long Jump (4.87m) for 2nd place.

The Lasswade 10 Mile Road Race was last held in 2020 and is one of the major fundraising activities for the club. The event organisers are looking for additional help with the race planning to make sure that this race can go ahead this year.

Additionally, we’re also looking for volunteers to help out on the day – provisionally it will be on the Sunday, 16th April but this is only really going to happen if we literally club together to make it happen.

Please get in touch with Keith if you can spare some time to share the workload or can help out on the day.

The final match of the Scottish Athletics Indoor League took place on Sunday 15^th January.  Always a difficult fixture with most athletes only just back in training after the Christmas break, the Lasswade team still came back with (at least) 14 personal best performances.

Some of the great performances included Lara who took 8 seconds off her 600m time and also went on to equal her PB in the 60m.  Also in the U11s, Ada recorded another PB in the 60m, her third one in each of her races indoors this season. 

In the U13s, Yvie who ran exceptionally well in the 200m at the last match went on to improve again running 31.34s.

Megan added 65cm to her shot putt PB in the Under 15s.  Lauchie and Ruairidh had PBs in the 300m and LJ respectively.

In-form Ramsay took a staggering half second off his 60m PB to record 7.49s for 2^nd place and went on to take nearly half a second off his 200m PB running 23.62s.  Will set a new PB in his 800m finishing 5^th overall.

The versatile Eloise got a new PB in her 800m race, finishing strongly in 2m33.92.  Abbie reached out to a new PB of 3m70 in the long jump.

In the U20s, Sophie recorded a new PB in the long jump and Alec picked up some useful points in the Shot Putt – not one of his usual events and despite throwing a considerably heavier weight than the last time he did the shot putt, managed to record a new PB of 6.91m.

Whilst you can’t get a PB each time you go out and compete, the rest of Team Lasswade still put out great performances and almost everyone who didn’t get a PB came pretty close to them.  Well done to everyone who competed in the league this winter.  There are still some open-graded competitions coming up – check the Scottish Athletics events calendar for more information.

Thanks to: Susan and John for officiating and Britt and Kelly volunteering to help out with the competition.  We are always on the look-out for more help as the competitions can’t run without volunteers.  Please get in touch if you’re interested in helping out at the club or at competitions.

Thanks to Gary Leek of Athletics Digital for providing the photos. More photos available on his website.

Match 3 Results below:

Overall Team Scores (PM)

Athletic events at all levels need officials to ensure a safe, fair meeting.

To encourage new recruits into officiating Scottish Athletics are hosting 2 walk rounds during the Indoor Championship on 4 and 12 February. Members of one of the sub groups of the Officials Commission will be there to escort interested people around the various disciplines involved in an athletic meeting. They will explain the different discipline and show first hand what each one does.

To register for the walk around send your name and email address to shonamalcolm@scottishathletics.org.uk and state is AM or PM would suit you best. Possible times would be 10am and 1pm

If you have anyone in your club that you think would be interested in learning more about what is involved or wishes to become an official, then please get them to contact Shona Malcolm via email shonamalcolm@scottishathletics.org.uk or call on 07731832567 for further information.

I cannot stress the importance of bringing new people into the sport to support greater competition for athletes at all levels.

Unfortunately, due to the freezing weather and icy track conditions, all training is cancelled tonight. Apologies for the late notice but we had hoped the conditions would improve.

Congratulations to Susan and Mark who had their coaching assessments for their Level 2 Coaching Certificates at the weekend. After months of hard work and preparation, both passed with flying colours!

This follows on from Ken, Ray and Michelle completing their Level 1 Coaching assistant courses before Christmas, so belated congratulations to them too.

As always, the club can’t operate without coaches and volunteers so it’s great to see our coaching team growing and progressing.

There’s no such thing as bad weather, only unsuitable clothing

Alfred Wainwright, A Coast to Coast Walk

There’s still a few more months of winter weather ahead of us, so it’s important that all athletes turn up to training in suitable attire. Athletes who aren’t suitably prepared for the conditions may be asked to sit out the session.

Here’s a useful guide for what to wear for a training night and bearing in mind that the temperatures drop quite quickly at Dalkeith Campus, you want to consider what the temperature might be at the end of your session and not just the start.

If you have any spikes, club kit or training kit that have outgrown or no longer use please consider donating them to the club so that they can be used by other club members or when athletes are caught off-guard by the weather conditions. Donations can be handed to Leigh Miller who is at the track most nights.

Please ensure that all kit is clean and dry and if you have any requests for an item, please let us know and we can see what we can do.

The heats of the historic New Year Sprint took place at Meadowbank Stadium on Friday 30th December. The 110m handicap race which goes back to 1870 has a top prize this year of £3500. Each competitor is given a “handicap” based on their recent performances and ability so, in theory, all runners have a good chance of winning regardless of ability.

Three Lasswade athletes made it to the start line this year.

James Cunningham, winner of the “big race” in 1998 finished 2nd in his heat but did not qualify for the round. James’s handicap was 13m.

In heat 5, Murray Blair running off 6m finished in 2nd place in a time of 11.56s which was fast enough to make it through to the cross-ties (semis) as a fastest loser.

Ramsay Blair, competing in the senior race for the first time ran in the final heat (heat 8 ). Despite being given a “challenging” handicap of 7.5m, Ramsay acquitted himself well finishing 3rd in his heat.

In the supporting events, Eloise ran in both the 90m Youths handicap race and the 800m handicap race. Eloise qualified for the final of the 90m as a fastest loser where she finished 4th.

Keith Kong and James Cunningham ran in the 90m Veterans handicap. Like last year, the turnout was low and the race was a straight final with seven athletes starting the race. Keith, running off 12.5m this year having been penalised 2m for winning the race the last time finished 3rd and James finished 6th (11m).

The 200m Open Handicap race was also run as a straight final although featured 15 athletes with handicaps ranging from 4m to 66m. Ramsay, running off 14m ran a good bend and worked his way through the field down the home-straight finishing in an excellent 4th place. The race was run by 69 year old Ramsay Sloss running off 59m which goes to show that age has no boundaries!

The cross-ties and final of the 110m Handicap race took place on New Year’s Day at Musselburgh race course. Murray was our sole representative at Musselburgh and was drawn in the 3rd cross-tie against the Ewan Urquhart, the fastest qualifier from Friday’s heats and Greg Kelly, twice winner of the New Year Sprint and only the winner from each cross-tie guaranteed a place in the final it was going to be challenge. Murray’s time of 12.53s did however bag him a spot in the eight man final, his 3rd final in 5 years where he finished 6th in a blanket finish for the 5th, 6th and 7th places.

Well done to all the Lasswade athletes who competed.

The full report and results of the New Year Sprint events can be found here.