LASSWADE ATHLETIC CLUB

Our final Forth Valley League fixture of this season took place on Sunday at Grangemouth Stadium.  A slightly weakened team due to holidays, it was a good opportunity for athletes to try new events and set performances to beat at their next outing. 

In the under 11s, Zoe made her debut for the club running the 100m in 15.9s for 4^th place in the A event – a great performance for her first race and followed it up with an impressive 200m taking 2^nd place in the A event.  Unfortunately, an issue with the timing meant that no time was given but I’m sure Zoe won’t hesitate to run another 200m again.  Zoe was backed up in the sprints by Orla (100m, 17.8s) and Aoife (200m, 38.2s).  Orla and Aoife also competed in the high jump for the first time, both clearing 0.9m which is a great achievement given that they’ve both only had a couple of training sessions so far.  Laura was our only runner in the 800m, showing great determination over the last 200m, finishing 6^th in a PB of 3m05.2s. 

Our only U13 boy was Moses running in his first 100m recording 16.0s for 7^th place.  In the under 13 girls, Beth ran the 100m (5^th in 15.2s) and the 200m (4^th in 29.8s).  Lucy set a new PB in 800m running 2m58.3s and also won the Javelin with 11.08m.

There was a much better turnout in the Under 15s age group with just a couple of empty slots on the team sheet.  In the Under 15 boys, Ruairidh ran 14.6s in the 100m and recorded a PB in the long jump with 3m37s.  Lewis also competed in the 100m and long jump, getting a PB in his 100m (16.1s) and 2m47 in the long jump.  Jamie covered the 800m and 300m running 2m41.4 and 51s respectively.  He was joined by Laurence in the 800m where a tough battle down the home straight rewarded him with a new PB of 2m12.6s.

In the Under 15 girls, both Emily and Yasmin recorded new PBs in the 100m.  Emily broke 14 seconds for the first time taking a good slice out of her PB with 13.7s.  Yasmin’s fast start saw her bring her PB down to 14.2s.  Abbie had a busy day running both the 800m in 2m52.2s, the 300m in 48.3 and jumping 3m57 in the long jump for a new PB.  Emily also competed in the long jump for the first time recording 2.72m.  Bethan joined Abbie in the 800m finishing strongly with 2m28.0 for 3^rd place in the A race.

This wrapped up the Forth Valley League for 2022.  Despite being relegation from a tough Division 1 against some much bigger teams, it has been a good season for Lasswade who have suffered more than most other clubs at the hands of Covid. There are plenty of positives to take – lots of athletes enjoying competitions for the first time, lots of athletes trying new events and lots of new PBs.  All things that puts us in good stead for next season when we hope to bounce back up to Division 1.  The Forth Valley League is a great league to start competing in so hopefully more athletes will sign up to compete for their first time next season.

Thanks to the officials and helpers who assisted at this match (Ruth, Susan, Andy, Ken and Phoebe) and to all those who helped throughout the season.  There are still some open graded competitions available for those looking for more competition opportunities.

Club Competition time!! On Thursday, 1st September 2022 from 6pm to 9pm we’ll be holding a competition for our Under 11s, Under 13s, Under 15s and Under 17 athletes at our own Dalkeith Campus track.

Free to enter for all our members who are 9 and above on the 1st September (please check your membership is up to date!). For any athlete who hasn’t competed before, this is a great opportunity to to put all your hard work in training in to practice.

There will be medals for all 1st place athletes in each event and awards for the highest scoring girl and boy in each age group.

Parents/Carers: Please stay to watch your athletes in action. We’ll have tea and coffee to hand.

Entry form below and provisional timetable below.
Return entry forms to competitions@lasswade-ac.org.uk by 5pm Friday 26th August.

Under 17, Under 20 and Senior athletes.

The next Scottish Joint League match takes place on Sunday 21st August at Grangemouth. A copy of the REVISED* timetable is below.
* Updated 16th August.

Events this time are –

• 110m Hurdles U20/Senior men
• 100m Hurdles U17 men/Senior & U20 women
• 80m Hurdles U17 women
• 800m – all
• 100m – all
• 300m U17 women
• 400m U20 & Senior women/ All men
• 1500m S/C U17 men
• 3000m S/C U20 Men & Sen Men
• Long Jump – all
• High Jump – all
• Shot – all
• Javelin – all
• Discus – all

Under 17 and Under 20s should email Keith Ridley (keitheac@gmail.com) by Wednesday 10th August with the following information :-

• Name 
• Male or Female
• DoB
• Age Group
• Scottish Athletics No
• Event(s) and PB.

Any Senior athletes wishing to compete, please contact competitions@lasswade-ac.org.uk

Sunday, 7th August @ Grangemouth

The last Forth Valley League competition for this season is on Sunday 7th August at Grangemouth. If you haven’t expressed an interest in competing, please speak to your coach at training or by emailing competitions@lasswade-ac.org.uk as soon as possible. This is competition is for Under 11s to Under 15s only.

Events for this round are:-

Under 11s: 100m, 200m, 800m and High Jump
Under 13s: 100m, 200m, 800m and Javelin
Under 15s: 100m 300m, 800m, (80mH ‘A’ Boys only) and Long Jump

The timetable can be found here.

Just a reminder that training for all groups continues throughout the summer holidays (unless your coaches tell you otherwise!).

Thursday, 1st September, 2022 @Dalkeith Campus Track

From 6.00pm till 9.00pm

For all athlete members up to Under 17 (free entry) including a mixed age group 4x100m relay and an Open 110m Handicap Sprint.

Entry forms will be available soon.

We hope that our “older” non-competing athletes will assist on the evening.

Joint League – Under 17, Under 20, Seniors

The next Scottish Joint League match takes place on Sunday 17th July at Grangemouth. This match was originally scheduled for Scotstoun but has been changed to Grangemouth. A copy of the provisional timetable is below.

Events this time are –

• 10,000m  (U20/Senior Men and Women)
• 300/400m Hurdles
• 200m
• 1500m
• 4 x 100m relay (let me know if you want to organise a team)
• Long Jump
• Triple Jump
• High Jump
• Pole Vault
• Shot
• Hammer

Under 17 and Under 20s should email Keith Ridley (keitheac@gmail.com) by Wednesday 6th July with the following information :-

• Name 
• Male or Female
• DoB
• Age Group
• Scottish Athletics No
• Event(s) and PB.

Any Senior athletes wishing to compete, please contact competitions@lasswade-ac.org.uk

Livingston Open Graded – Friday 22nd July

This is a self-entry competition for all age groups from U11s and above. Entries can be made using the following link.

https://www.livingstonac.com/fixtures.php?fid=3847

Closing date for entries is Sunday, 17th July.

Sunday 26th June, Grangemouth

Sunday saw the final Youth Development League match of the season held at Grangemouth Stadium.  In our first match of the season, we had just 6 athletes competing and understandably, the team finished in last place.  Match two, saw a slightly better turn out with 11 athletes but again, with such small numbers competing another last place followed.  With 22 athletes turning out on Sunday, we were finally starting to see a team size that were closer to our pre-Covid levels.

Matilde stepped on to the track for the first event of the day in the Under 15 girls 75m hurdles – her first time competing in this event.  Unfortunately, Matilde clipped the first hurdle which throwing threw her off her stride but she showed great resilience to recover from this and finish strongly. 

She later went on to record a PB in her shot putt.  Also scoring a PB in the shot putt was Lucy finishing 2^nd in the Under 13s ‘A’ event.  Megan finished 6^th in the ‘B’ event which unfortunately happened to be on at the same time as her long jump.  Despite having to run between the two events and jumping into a strong wind, Megan still managed to improve her long jump PB by 30cm.  Lucy backed up her 2^nd place in the shot putt with 8^th place in the 800m and a great 3^rd place in the javelin – another athlete trying out a new event for the first time and with only one training session behind her.

The strong headwind in the home straight was not going to favour the sprinters, but Corey still managed two PBs in the 100m and 200m. 

Not to be outdone, Yasmin and Maya also achieved PBs in the 100m and 200m respectively.  Had it not been for a -6m/s wind, Emily would have surely recorded a PB in her 100m race but will be happy to have finished 2^nd in the ‘A’ race just a stride behind the winner.   

Beth, running in the under 13s 150m race finished 2^nd in the ‘A’ race – a very close race where she finished just 0.04s behind the winner.  Finally, but not least, Lewis making his debut for the club scored vital points in the 100m and long jump – more on that later.

Eloise put in solid performances in the 300m, 800m as usual but it was the long jump where she saw the most success winning the ‘A’ event with a new PB (almost a metre improvement despite jumping into the strong wind).  Abbie also recorded a PB in the long jump and finished 6^th in the ‘A’ 200m and 3^rd in the ‘B’ 800m. 

The Under 15 girls 1500m saw a great race with both Lasswade athletes, Bethan and Freya settling into the lead pack after the first lap.  Both girls pushed hard and the pack was whittled down to three athletes going into the last lap, with both Lasswade athletes in contention.  With 300m to go, it was Bethan who hit the front using her 800m speed to open up a convincing lead coming down the home straight. 

Freya came in 3^rd overall but this meant Lasswade actually bagged all the points in this event with winners of both the ‘A’ and ‘B’ races and both girls running PBs.  Freya also recorded a PB in the high jump.

In the boys middle distance events, Struan and Jamie both ran well to record PBs in their 800m races.  Jonathan finished 6^th in the under 15s 800m ‘A’ race having also competed on Friday night at Livingston and getting a PB in his 1500m race.

Finlay made his debut for the club in the 1200m but notably also agreed to step in to the 4x100m relay team which was less than 15 minutes after his gruelling 1200m race.  Without this display of team spirit, there wouldn’t have been a 4x100m relay team for the Under 13s.  Well done Finlay. 

Also representing Lasswade for the first time this season were Under 13 boys Moses, Michael and Will. It was great to finally see some under 13 boys representing the club on the track this season. The boys showed great camaraderie throughout the day, cheering on their team mates and fist-bumping their way through the afternoon.  I am sure that we will hear more about them in future competitions.

Rain was a constant threat throughout the day and unfortunately, it was the relay teams that had to endure a short wet spell.  As well as the under 13 boys relay team, a strong turnout from the under 15 girls meant we could actually put out both a 4x100m and 4x300m relay team.  Slick baton changes in the 4x100m saw the girls finish 6^th with Ruth making her debut for Lasswade.  In the last event of the day for Lasswade, the 4x300m relay team, despite being more accustomed to slightly longer distances they managed to finish in a fantastic 3^rd place.

Lasswade finished in 7^th place on the day.  Excluding the points gained from our club officials, we were just 5.5 points ahead of the team in 8^th place and this illustrates how every single member of the team’s can make a difference to the overall score.  Even the athletes who come in last place in their events contribute to the team score and your efforts never go unrecognised.

Thanks:

• Linden, Dave, Ruth, John and Susan our amazing officials who help ensure that these events can go ahead and run like clockwork.  Thanks also to Alistair Scott and Andy Kitchin who also helped Lasswade provide their quota of helpers.
• As always, our great team of coaches and parent helpers for bringing out the best in our athletes.
• Parents for bringing the athletes to the competitions and supporting Team Lasswade.

Competition Stats:

22 athletes; 15 personal bests from 12 athletes, 6 athletes competing for the first time; 2 happy team mangers.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Apologies for the delays in getting emails out with the team selections for tomorrow’s competition at Grangemouth. These should now be with you. Please check your spam folders if you haven’t received an email and get in touch if you’re expecting your child to compete (competitions@lasswade-ac.org.uk).

Pleased to announce that we have over 20 athletes representing Lasswade this weekend which is great turnaround since the first competition of the season when we only had 6 athletes. With this, however, comes a lot more administration and organisation and any help with the teams, selections will always be welcomed. Please get in touch if you can spare some time with any aspect of athletics.

Good luck to all the athletes competing tomorrow.