Congratulations to Lasswade AC athlete Sarah Tait who won the 3000m steeplechase at the Loughborough international today (23/05/2021).
Due to the pandemic this was Sarah’s first race over the barriers since August 2019 but she put in a fine performance tracking Welsh athlete Lauren Cooper before making a decisive move to take the lead at the bell going into the final lap. Sarah looked strong and moved clear of Lauren to take a comfortable win and set a new PB of 10.28.17 which is a great start to the season.
Congratulations to Lasswade AC athlete Sarah Tait who has been selected as part of the Scotland team for the Loughborough international on 23 May 2021. Sarah is no stranger to running for Scotland as a junior athlete but this is her first selection as a senior.
Sarah will be competing in the 3000m steeplechase.
For details of the announcement and team please click here
Good luck from all at Lasswade AC – have a great race!
Hope that you are glad to get back to training and looking forward to some competitions this summer. At the moment these are likely to be on a more local basis and we would encourage you to take these opportunities as they arise. The competition information below is for junior athletes only.
We received an email from Edinburgh AC last night and wanted to get the information online as soon as possible as it takes place this weekend.
‘I am delighted to pass on the link for any Lasswade or Moorfoot athletes, who would like to compete in the event EAC are organising at Saughton on Sunday. Please pass on to any of your athletes, who may wish to take the opportunity to compete. If you have anyone, who would like to high jump we are holding a competition on Wednesday, starting at 6.30 with warm up available from 6.15 on pit. Just ask anyone interested to get in touch. I will be putting out details of Team Edinburgh competition opportunities in the next couple of days and again I would be grateful if you could pass on to any athletes.’
Please click here for the link to the website to enter ideally they need to have this link for information.
Club Event information (This link will be useful for Lasswade to get hold of draft timetable (to be published by this evening), athlete information document, site plan and location map. Final timetable will be published on the website by Friday morning. Seeding lists will only be emailed (to athletes Friday morning).
Event registration for invited guests (non members only) – NOW OPEN FOR GUEST ENTRIES – PLEASE NOTE ENTRIES CLOSE MIDNIGHT ON THURSDAY 13 MAY 2021
Dave McConnell is one of Lasswade AC’s most longstanding coaches and is well known throughout Scottish athletics as both a coach and official.
Prior to the coronavirus Dave was at training Mondays and Thursdays with his group and officiated most weekends at events up and down the country. Over the past year due to Dave’s own health and the coronavirus he has had to take a bit more care and was therefore unable to return to coaching.
I have found out today that Dave is currently in the Western General Hospital and is having to self isolate for a second time as one of the patients in his ward tested positive for Covid19.
All at Lasswade AC wish Dave a speedy recovery and hope to see him back at the track over the coming months.
Lasswade AC athlete Guy Learmonth has been selected to represent GB and NI over 800m at the European Indoor Championships being held in Torun, Poland from March 5th -7th. This will be the fourth time Guy has competed at a European Indoor Championships which is a great achievement.
Congratulations to Guy on his selection – great to see him winning in the Lasswade AC vest. If you missed Guy’s race last weekend then please click here
It will be fantastic to see a member of our club pulling on the GB vest and once again taking on the best in Europe. I am sure we will all be eagerly watching his race and cheering for Guy. Looking forward to a great race – good luck Guy!
John’s wife, Rebecca has been touch with Margaret Benham and has asked her to pass on her thanks to everyone for their kind messages of sympathy. Rebecca also asked Margaret to let everyone know that the service for John will take place at Mortonhall Crematorium on Friday 8th January 2021, 2.00pm.
Due to Covid restrictions numbers attending are limited to 20 and only family will be permitted inside the chapel. However, any club members wishing to pay their respects will be able to stand outside.
The club recently received the very sad news that former coach and official John Brash passed away earlier this week.
John Brash
John was involved with Lasswade AC for many years as both a coach, official and also as a parent as his son Martin was a member. John was seen regularly at training on Monday and Thursday nights where he collected subs and also coached. High Jumper, Robert Ferguson, was one of the athletes that John coached up to 2013 at which point he had won numerous Scottish Championships at age group level with a best jump at that point of 2.05. A credit to John and his coaching knowledge
John was also a qualified official and was a regular at events throughout the year both track and field and cross country competitions. In addition John and his wife Rebecca also found time to support club events preparing food for officials and volunteers who gave up their time to support Lasswade AC.
John was a great asset to the club and he took on many different roles happy to lend a helping hand wherever it was needed . He will be sadly missed by all at Lasswade AC.
Sincere condolences to Rebecca and family from all at Lasswade AC.
Given the current situation with Covid 19 it was fantastic to see the above event take place yesterday morning at Holyrood Park, Edinburgh. I think keeping it on a smaller scale within Lothian and limiting it to junior athletes (U11- U17) certainly helped. Huge thanks to all involved but in particular to Edinburgh AC and Andy Ross of Harmeny Athletic Club for all of their hard work in making this happen. Thanks also to all of the officials and marshals who helped on the day.
The weather on the day was perfect, not too cold and it stayed dry. The fields in terms of size were restricted to a maximum of 30 which worked out well with only one age group (U13) exceeding the numbers which resulted in their being two waves. Lasswade AC had a great turn out with 21 athletes across all of the age groups with some fine performances. I think most were just happy to get some sort of competition. All being well the next event will take place at Fox Lake, Dunbar on 12 December but we will keep you all up to date.
Thanks to everyone, athletes, parents and officials for turning out to represent the club at this event and for adhering to the guidelines.
It is with great sadness that the club has to let members know of the passing of Angela McLaughlin (nee Marshall).
Angela has been involved in athletics for many years and was a keen thrower as a young athlete and a regular at track and field competition. In more recent years she has taken on the role of supporter and organiser taking Megan and Amy, ‘her girls’ to competitions for their respective events regardless of the weather, spending many cold and wet Saturday afternoons at cross country events. Angela was incredibly proud of her daughters but supported all Lasswade AC athletes and took the time to speak to them finding out how they had performed in their event with a genuine interest.
Together with Mark and her family she was heavily involved in the organisation of the Forth Valley League which is a key competition for younger athletes. Angela was also always involved in supporting club events like our annual cross country and road race and was a member of our committee.
Angela worked as a nurse, a member of that group of extremely caring and special people. Her caring nature shone through to anyone who knew her.
Angela will be sadly missed by us all and is a huge loss to Lasswade AC and athletics.
We pass on our sincere condolences to Mark, Megan, Amy and family.
‘A private funeral service will be held on Tuesday 15 September at Rosewell Cemetery at 11am.
‘Family flowers only are requested, but if desired donations online to Marie Curie Hospice.
‘With ongoing restrictions, the family are limited to the number of people who are allowed to be at the graveside. If you do wish to pay your respects, please do so by attending but remaining at a suitable distance.’
