LASSWADE ATHLETIC CLUB

Inter District Cross Country Championships – Irvine 15/01/22

The Inter District Cross Country Championships took place at Beach Park, Irvine this weekend. It was great to see an event back at this location which has been used for National Cross Country Championships and Scottish Schools Championships over the years.

The conditions were good for running, it was a cold dry day and the course was firm with a number of short but challenging hills to break up the rhythm of the runners in a very open course.

Lasswade AC had nine runners competing with five representing the East of Scotland. Freya Mowbray, Andrew McWilliam and Rowan Taylor all u15, Olivia Meikle u17 and Amy Frankland in the senior Women’s team. In addition we had four athletes in the Scottish Universities team, Sarah Tait, Magnus Tait, Christian Graham and Harry Henriksen.

The first Lasswade athlete in action was Freya Mowbray in the u15 girls. Freya went off fairly quick and had a solid run to finish in 24th place.

In the u15 boys Andrew McWilliam and clubmate Rowan Taylor were together battling for 3rd spot for much of the race with Rowan fading slightly towards the end of the race. Both boys did well to finish 3rd and 7th respectively and help the East of Scotland to team gold in that race.

Olivia Meikle was in the u17 women’s race and had a good run to secure a top 20 finish in 17th place.

The next race with Lasswade athletes was the senior women with Sarah Tait and Amy Frankland. Both girls have been running well over the country so far this season with Sarah gaining a couple of u23 Scottish team selections. Sarah had started off quite hard and was up in the top 4 for a large part of the race, Amy had a more conservative start to the race but worked her way back towards Sarah taking the lead at one point but then Sarah rallied and passed Amy on the final run into the finish. Sarah finished 7th and Amy 8th. East of Scotland won team gold.

The final race of the day was the men with three Lasswade athletes all running for Scottish Universities, Christian Graham, Magnus Tait and Harry Henriksen. All had been running well over the country this season with Christian securing Scottish u23 selection for Liverpool and again for Belfast next weekend. Magnus and Harry had also been running well and had been fairly closely matched in their races so far. The race started off fairly fast and Christian wasn’t too far off the pace in about 6th place with Harry also up near the front at the start and Magnus just behind. As the race progressed there wasn’t much movement at the front with Christian finishing 7th Harry and Magnus drifted back a little finishing 18th and 29th respectively. Scottish Universities won the team gold.

Well done to all the athletes on their individual performances and good luck to Sarah and Christian for next weekend in Belfast.

For full results please click here

Photographs courtesy of Neil Renton

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Covid delayed, but we can’t let the club’s big birthday go without a celebration.

The second race of this winter’s East District Cross Country League took place at Camperdown Park in Dundee at the weekend.

Numbers for Lasswade AC were disappointing for a variety of reasons but we only had complete teams in three age groups u13 girls, u15 boys and u15/17 girls who are combined. In the u11’s we only had one athlete Laura Kitchin running in her first league match and running very well to finish 16th. There were no U11 boys.

We had three u13 girls, Beth McWilliam who led the girls home in 17th place followed closely by Louise Thomson in 20th place and Eilidh Mowbray persuaded to run on her birthday in 41st place – hope that you enjoyed the rest of your Birthday Eilidh!!

In the u13 boys we only had one athlete Nathan Lawrence who finished in 46th place.

The u15 and u17 girls run together and we had four athletes in this race, Olivia Meikle had a solid run in 9th, with team mate Freya Mowbray having a strong run in 15th followed by Bethan Kitchin in 37th and Skye Foster 51st.

We had five under 15 boys competing yesterday. Andrew McWilliam led them and the rest of the field home with a strong run in 1st place, he was closely followed by team mate Rowan Taylor in 2nd place. Our third athlete and last counter for the team was Patrick Snowden in 25th place giving the team 2nd place on the day. Will Heatlie was next home for Lasswade in 40th followed by Cian Murray in 41st.

Alex Miller was our only u17 male athlete and finished in 32nd place.

Amy Smith, Rachel Fagan and Debra Urquhart were our three athletes in the ladies race. First home in 11th place was Amy Smith followed by Rachel Fagan in 71st and Debra Urquhart in 84th place.

The final race of the day was the men and we had two athletes David Woods and Derrick Brydon. David led the Lasswade men home in 47th place with Derrick in 175th place.

Thanks and well done to everyone who competed on the day.

For full results please click here

Photo courtesy of Neil Renton

The Scottish Universities XC Championships took place at Craigmillar Castle in Edinburgh last weekend.

There were a number of great performances from Lasswade AC athletes representing their universities. In the Men’s race Christian Graham won the event running for Dundee, Magnus Tait finished 10th for Glasgow closely followed by Harry Henriksen in 11th for Edinburgh. In the women’s race Sarah Tait finished 2nd for Stirling.

Well done to all our athletes on their performances

The National Short Course Cross Country Championships took place this weekend at Lanark race course. The event had been held there three years ago in 2018 and the course itself is fast, flat and open.

The first challenge of the day for Linda and I was getting the tent up in very wet and windy conditions which was a struggle with the end result somewhat lopsided but it was better than nothing (I think).

This event is only open to age groups u15 and above and the first event of the day was the U15 girls with three Lasswade AC athletes competing over the one lap 2km course, Freya Mowbray, Bethan Kitchin and Eloise Scott. The girls all ran very well in the challenging conditions with Freya leading them home in 19th place followed by Bethan in 38th and Eloise completing the team in 69th place.

It was the U15 boys next and we had four athletes in this race Andrew McWilliam, Rowan Taylor, Patrick Snowden and Will Heatlie. Running over the same 2km distance Andrew McWilliam was the leading Lasswade athlete running a strong race to finish high up the field in a fine 5th place, not too far behind was team mate Rowan Taylor in 13th place next it was Patrick Snowden who was running his first race and finished 59th with Will Heatlie 78th.

Next to brave the conditions it was the turn of the U17 girls. Lasswade AC only had one runner in this race Olivia Meikle who has been running well over the country so far this season. Olivia had another great run to finish an impressive 5th place.

In the U17 boys Lasswade AC had Alastair Scott and Sam Kitchin. Alastair had a solid run to finish just inside the top 40 in 39th place with Sam in his first race this season in 61st place.

The next two races were the Women and Men with star attractions Laura Muir, Andrew Butchart and Jake Wightman. However, hopes were high that Lasswade AC’s own athletes could finish high up the very strong fields. The women were off first and we had Sarah Tait and Amy Frankland in the race. The race set off at a hard pace with four runners breaking away Laura Muir, Eloise Walker, Megan Keith and Morag Millar, our own athletes Sarah Tait and Amy Frankland were not too far behind very much in top end of the field. Laura Muir was the winner showing her class by moving clear on the second of the two laps to win comfortably. Sarah led the Lasswade athletes home with a fine run finishing in 8th place and Amy also had a great run to finish in 17th place. Its a pity we only had two athletes racing as looking at the team results I definitely think we could have been amongst the medals so hopefully we can get all our top women out at some point this winter.

The final race of the day was the men and we had four athletes racing for Lasswade AC, Christian Graham, David Woods, Greg Louden and Euan Hood with another two, Harry Henriksen and Magnus Tait representing their universities. Andrew Butchart of Central AC led from the gun with team mate Jamie Crow also pushing the pace at the front. Christian Graham who has had a great start to this cross country season was leading the Lasswade AC athletes at the end of the first lap in around 12th place but over the second lap he pushed on to pick off another few athletes to finish an impressive 8th place. Next home was Harry who finished 29th with Magnus only a few seconds behind in 39th. David Woods had a solid run in 173rd with Greg Louden and Euan Hood using this race to do some over distance training to finish 200th and 206th respectively. Similar to the ladies I think if we can get all our Men out together at some point we could have a good chance of finishing high up the field in terms of team places.

A great days cross country with some fine individual performances and hopefully a few athletes selected for the Scotland U23 team for Liverpool Cross Challenge.

Well done to everyone who took part and congratulations on their own individual performances.

All photographs courtesy Will Graham

As you may be aware we have organised ten pin bowling for our junior athletes to celebrate the club’s 40th anniversary. The response has been so good that we have reached capacity and cannot accept any more names. We have put a waiting list in place and if we are advised of any children that can no longer attend we will contact anyone that has been added to the waiting list.

The first of this season’s cross country races took place at the weekend in Galashiels with the annual East District XC Relays last held in 2019 due to the pandemic. It was great to see so many athletes and clubs participating over a challenging hilly course in the border’s countryside.

Lasswade AC initially had eleven teams entered for the event over all age groups, however there were a number of withdrawals due to injury and Covid 19 so ended up with eight teams on the day.

The first event to get underway was the young females and our u13 girl Isla Taylor got the team of to a great start finishing the first leg in 4^th place. U15 Eloise Scott was our second leg runner and she had a strong run to hand over to our final leg runner u17 Olivia Meikle in 8^th place. Olivia ran well on the final leg to pull back one place and bring the team home in 7^th place, a great start to the day’s events.

The next race was the young males and we had three teams, although one was incomplete. Our u13 first leg runners were Jonathan MacQueen, Ruairidh Wood and Lauchie Welsh. All the boys ran well with Jonathan leading home in 20th, not too far behind was Ruairdh in 25th followed closely by Lauchie in 28th. Our u15 boys were Rowan Taylor, Cian Murray and Will Heatlie with Rowan having a fine run to move the first team up to 11th. Cian was next home with a good run in 27th and one of our new athletes Will had a solid run to finish in 30th. We only had two under 17 runners, Alastair Scott and Rory Scott with both boys having good runs their lap times were within a couple of seconds of each other. Their teams finished in 14th and 22nd place respectively.

The ladies race was next and Lasswade AC had finished 3^rd in this event the last time it was held in 2019 albeit with a slightly different team. This year we had two teams  and hoped our girls could prevent Edinburgh University who had a number of good teams getting a clean sweep.  We were not to be disappointed with first leg runner Amy Smith in her first race for a number of years having a good run to hand over in 7^th place to U23 GB international Sarah Tait who showed her class to put in the fastest lap of the day and move us up to 3^rd place and hand over to final leg runner Amy Frankland.  We could see Amy on the hills in the distance and she looked like she was moving well and closing in on the athletes in front of her. As the athletes approached the finish and came into the last field Amy Frankland was leading from Cera Gemmell of Edinburgh University. A fantastic race and great result for Lasswade AC to win from Edinburgh University who were 2nd, 3^rd,  4^th  and 5^th. Our other ladies team was led off by Hannah Little who ran well to hand over in 31^st place to Cathy Dickson who had a great run to pull us up to 22^nd place.  Debra Urquhart wass on the final leg and in her first race for a few years ran well to bring the team in 24^th place.

The final event of the day was the men and Lasswade AC had two teams. On the first leg Christian Graham made his intentions clear from the start and went straight to the lead closely followed by another Lasswade AC athlete Harry Henriksen who was running for Edinburgh University.

It was great to see Christian and Harry leading the race with Christian first home closely followed by Harry. Martin Gore was our next runner and ran well over the 4k course to keep us in the top 10 and hand over in 7^th place to our 3^rd leg runner David Woods. David a newer member was running for Lasswade AC for the first time and ran well to keep us just outside the top 10 in 11^th place. Our final leg runner Euan Hood had a solid run on the final leg to bring us home in 12^th place. Our other men’s team was initially going to be all masters but unfortunately we had a few late withdrawals so it became a mixed team. Andrew McGlone led the team off and declared that it was a tough course coming home in 35^th and handing over to Scott Dickson. Scott had a good run to move us up a couple of places to 33rd. Greg Louden was next off and running very well to move up seven places to 26^th.  Our final leg runner was Sean Hadden who had a solid run to finish in 27^th place.

Christian leading at the end of the first leg!

A great day’s athletics with fine performances from our athletes with some amongst the fastest times of the day. The highlight has to be our ladies win.

Congratulations to everyone on their performances.

Thanks for all your help on the day especially Stuart Meikle for arriving early and helping us erect the tent,  Scott and Cathy Dickson for taking it away to dry it and to all the officials and volunteers, especially Linden, who make these events happen.

See you all at the National Relays!

Kirk and Linda

Photo’s Courtesy of Neil Renton

The cross country season consists of league, district, and national events. Please see below for further details on each. All events are very friendly and are a great way to get some conditioning work in!

Athletes compete in the same age groups as they did for Summer T&F. However, the full DOB age ranges for Winter 2024/25 XC may be viewed here

East District League (U11 to Masters)

• The East District League has three races over the season.
• There is no team selection or restriction on numbers for this league. Please talk to your coach if you are interested in taking part.
• You simply turn up, report to the club banner to collect your number, warm up and run.
• There is no cost to enter these races.
• Athletes run in their age groups, with the top finishers for each club counting towards the score for their age group team.
• Each age group team then has their scores put towards the club’s overall male and overall female totals.
• See here for more info on the East District Cross Country League such as venues, course maps and the event schedule.

District and National Events Athlete Availability

All the declaration links below take you to the same form, so you can enter multiple events on the same form.

District Events

Lasswade AC are in the East District with two events over the season for U13 to Masters. The events are, the East District Relays* and East District Championships. 

*The District Relays are the season opener and they are great fun. Junior relays should have one athlete from each age group (U13 – U15 – U17) per team. (TEAMS MUST HAVE AN U13)  Each run their own leg before passing to their team mate in the next age group. All legs are the same distance.  Senior teams are made up of 4 athletes, U20 and upwards. 

Scottish National Events

These events are the National Relays, National Champs – both for U13 to Masters. Then we have National Short Course Champ’s (U15 upwards) and finally the National Masters Champ’s.