East District League – Match 2 – Dundee

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.

Andrew McWilliam on his way to victory in the u15 boys race.

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

Posted in Uncategorized | Leave a comment

Scottish Universities XC Champs – Craigmillar Castle, Edinburgh

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

Posted in Uncategorized | Leave a comment

National Short Course XC Championships – Lanark – 06/11/2021

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

Posted in Uncategorized | Leave a comment

40th Anniversary Bowling – 31/10/2021

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.

Posted in Uncategorized | Leave a comment

East District Cross Country Relay Champs – 09/10/2021

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 4th 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 8th place. Olivia ran well on the final leg to pull back one place and bring the team home in 7th 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 3rd 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 7th 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 3rd 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, 3rd,  4th  and 5th. Our other ladies team was led off by Hannah Little who ran well to hand over in 31st place to Cathy Dickson who had a great run to pull us up to 22nd place.  Debra Urquhart wass on the final leg and in her first race for a few years ran well to bring the team in 24th place.

Senior Ladies East District Cross Country Relay Champions 2021 – Amy Smith, Sarah Tait and Amy Frankland

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.

Harry on his way to 2nd on the first leg with the fastest lap of the day for an U20

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 7th place to our 3rd 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 11th place. Our final leg runner Euan Hood had a solid run on the final leg to bring us home in 12th 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 35th 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 26th.  Our final leg runner was Sean Hadden who had a solid run to finish in 27th 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.

Linden busy recording all of the finishers

See you all at the National Relays!

Kirk and Linda

Photo’s Courtesy of Neil Renton

Posted in Uncategorized | Leave a comment

XC GUIDE & FIXTURE LIST

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.
  Date Venue Schedule
East League 1 26th Oct Kirkcaldy Schedule
East League 2 16th Nov Dundee Schedule
East League 3 18th Jan Bathgate 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. 

  Date Venue & Event Info Declare
District Relays 5th Oct Livingston Here by Sept 18th
District Champs 30th Nov TBC Here by 14th Nov

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. 

  Date Venue & Event Info Declare
National Relays 19th Oct Cumbernauld Here by 5th Oct
National Short Course Champs 2nd Nov Kirkcaldy Here by 16th Oct
National Masters 8th Feb  Dundee Here by 25th Jan
National Champs 22nd Feb Falkirk Here by 8th Feb

Posted in Uncategorized | 3 Comments

Dechmont Law Trail Race – Friday 27 August

We have been sent details of the above event taking place next week. I have copied the information below:

Race information

’10K’ TRAIL RACE @ 19:15 
Junior ‘2.5K’ TRAIL RACE (11yr – 16yr) @ 18:45
2.5K TRAIL RACE  16yr+ @ 18:45

“Scenic woodland trail – Mostly firm paths – Some muddy patches – Short tarmac sections – Nice Views”

The 2.5km race follows a single loop of paths around Dechmont Law. The 10km starts with the same loop and then follows a longer loop past the Alien Stone then to the North Wood before returning to Dechmont Law.

The Races are held under the current Scottish Government and Scottish Athletics guidelines.

You must stay at home if you:
• If you have Covid-19 symptoms.
• Someone in your household has Covid-19 symptoms.
• If you have been asked to self-isolate at home by the Scottish Government Test and Protect system.
• If you are returning from a country outside the UK you must follow the Scottish Government guidance on quarantine.

Entry Fees for 10km and 2.5km Trail Races

  • Senior: £17 ( £15 SA members)
  • U20:     £10 (£8 SA members )
  • £2 discount for Scottish Athletics Members (SAL Number Required)
  • No Entries on the day

Minimum age for 10K entry is 17 years on date of race
Minimum age for Junior 2.5k entry is 11 years on date of race

Entries On Line via Team App

We hope to arrange parking at Deans Community High School, Livingston, EH54 8PS
also you can park at Middlewood Park EH54 8BD

Facilities: First Aid, Portable Toilets adjacent to the Start

All athletes to Collect race numbers and Timing Chips on the day from registration adjacent to the Start/Finish.

The races will be Chip Timed by Keep it Simple Timing. Results will be posted as soon as possible at  www.kitst.co.uk

You must return your Timing Chip after you Finish.

Enquiries to: events@lothianrunningclub.co.uk

Posted in News and Info, Uncategorized | Leave a comment

Oriam Trail Race – Sunday 19 September

The above event is being organised by Harmeny AC and will take place at the Oriam Sports centre in the ground of Heriot Watt University.

There will be no charge for participation as Harmeny want it to be as successful as possible and be a bit of a celebration of the return of off-track events prior to the return of Cross Country in October.

The course is a mixture of trail paths, tarmac and grass.

There will be car parking, café and toilet facilities available, but no changing facilities.

It woud great to support this event as Harmeny have been one of the local clubs that helped organise the smaller local cross country events last winter.

There will only be club-entries so you will need to let Linda or I know if you would like to be entered for the event and we will provide a list of entrants to Harmeny. We need to provide a final list by Thursday 9th September so please confirm to us by Monday 6th September.

Provisional Timetable

Race Register Race Distance
U11 Girls 10.00am 10.30am 1.9km
U11 Boys 10.20am 10.50am 1.9km
U13 Girls 10.40am 11.10am 2.7km
U13 Boys 11.05am 11.35am 2.7km
U15 Girls 11.30am 12.00pm 2.7km
U15 Boys 11.55am 12.25pm 2.7km
U17/20 Girls 12.20m 12.50pm 4.3km
U17/20  Boys 12.50pm 1.20pm 4.3km

If anyone has any questions please get in touch or see us at training.

Thanks

Posted in News and Info, Uncategorized | Leave a comment

Scottish National Championships

The Scottish National track and field championships took place at Grangemouth on the weekend of 14th and 15th August and it was great to see a number of Lasswade AC athletes competing.

There were some fine performances from Lasswade AC athletes over the weekend.

On Saturday Alastair Scott ran very well in the U17 800m to finish 2nd in his heat running 2.03.99 which was just outside his pb narrowly missing out on a place in the final.  In the senior mens 800m race Greg Louden had a solid run to finish 3rd in his heat in a time of 1.57.59 just missing out on a place in the final. Greg also ran in the 400m later in the day and finished 3rd in his heat in a time of 49.70 qualifying for the final on Sunday. Clubmate Guy Learmonth dropping down from his normal 800m also ran in the senior mens 400m qualifying comfortably for the final in 48.07.

Guy is off is mark in the mens 400m!

 

Greg – working hard in the finishing straight of the mens 400m.

 

 

 

 

 

 

(Photo’s courtesy Bobby Gavin)

Murray Blair was competing in the senior mens 100m and made it through the first round but was knocked out in the semis finishing 6th in his race in a time of 11.55. In the u17 women 1500m Olivia Meikle had a strong run to finish 6th in a time of 5.02.81 to qualify for the final. Magnus Tait had chosen not to run his strongest event, the steeplechase, but to do the mens 1500m instead. After the first 150m it was clear nobody was willing to take up the running in the very windy conditions so Magnus went to the front leading the field to the bell but faded on the final lap to finish 8th in 4.01.30.

On Sunday, the conditions although still blustery were much better than Saturday where the wind has been much stronger. Harry Henriksen was first Lasswade athlete on the track in the u20 mens 5000m. Harry led from gun to tape with a strong run just outside his pb Harry won in 14.59 – what a start!

Harry on his way to the Scottish National u20 5000m title!

(Photo courtesy Bobby Gavin)

In the field events Matthew Tait was competing in the u17 high jump and he took the title with a jump of 1.83m.

Matthew Tait in action on his way to the u17 Scottish National High Jump tilte!

(Photo courtesy Bobby Gavin)

The next athlete in action for us was Sarah Tait in the 3000m steeplechase for senior women. A bit jaded from recent competitions Sarah had a comfortable win bringing Lasswade AC a hat-trick of National titles with three athletes still to run their finals.

Sarah Tait comfortably wins her her first senior 3000m steeplechase title.

 

 

 

 

 

 

(Photo courtesy Bobby Gavin)

In the senior mens 400m strangely all the athletes ran slower in the final than they did in their heats which were run in much windier conditions! Guy Learmonth finished 2nd with clubmate Greg Louden finishing in 5th. Olivia Meikle was the final Lasswade AC athlete to run and she was in the U17 womens 1500m. Olivia finished the weekend with a fine performance finishing 9th running a personal best of 4.57.74!

A great weekend of athletics, it was fantastic to see everyone competing again and to bump into and catch up with coaches, athletes and officials who all did an amazing job to make the weekend a success.

Congratulations to all the athletes on their performances.

 

Posted in News and Info, Track and Field, Uncategorized | Leave a comment

Sarah finishes 5th at u23 European Championships

Sarah Tait continued her fine form over 3000m steeplechase this season when representing Great Britain in the u23 European Championships in Estonia last week.

Sarah would have been forgiven for being nervous representing GB for the first time but there was no sign of nerves on the start line in her heat last Thursday. Sarah put in a fine performance only a few seconds outside her PB running 10.06.71 to finish 5th and make sure of automatic qualification for the final taking place on the Saturday afternoon. A day to relax and recover.

Sarah – 5th in Europe !!

The Saturday was a hot day with temperatures reaching 34 degrees, not ideal for a fair skinned Scot! However, once again Sarah set to the task and settled down in the field of 15 runners. The race set off at a slow pace which was no doubt a good thing in the heat but it soon picked up with the french athletes who were the pre race favourites together with a polish athlete pushing it on over the last 1000m. Sarah wasn’t too far behind sitting inside the top 7 or 8 runners and moving up nicely. Sarah had a strong final lap to move up to 5th in a time of 10.04.53 and finish first british athlete. A fantastic experience of championship running at the highest level and a fine debut in a GB vest.

Congratulations Sarah all the hard work and dedication has been worth it.

Posted in News and Info, Track and Field | Leave a comment