Magnus with a great run to finish in 9th place! (Photo courtesy Will Graham)

The National Cross Country Championships once again took place at Callender Park, Falkirk. There was some doubt that the championships would go ahead at this venue due to the recent adverse weather and the condition of the park. However, after agreement that  some parts of the park would not be used and a revised course the event got the go ahead. That having been said the ground was saturated and extremely muddy in large sections of the course, the forecast for the day was wind, sleet and rain.

Lasswade AC had total of 28 athletes running and the first event of the day was the u13 girls.  The conditions deteriorated and the sleet and rain came down as the race got underway. The first Lasswade girl home was Hannah Knipe in 28th followed by team mate Eloise Scott in 50th and Bethan Kitchin in 62nd. Unfortunately Abbie Foster did not finish as she had a fall after being tripped by another runner who slipped in the muddy conditions.

Our U13 Girls at the end of their race! (Photo – courtesy of Graham Knipe)

The cold and wet conditions continued for the u13 boys race. Andrew McWilliams who has been improving throughout the winter was first Lasswade runner home in an impressive 7th place with team mate Rowan Taylor having a strong run in 26th and Cian Murray  completing our u13’s in 144th place.

In our u15 girls team Olivia Meikle led the girls home with a solid performance in 33rd, Amy McLaughlin was next home in 46th followed by team mate Skye Foster in 92nd, Fiona Eades 95th and Rebekah Knipe 102nd.

We had five u15 boys in the next race and the conditions remained cold, wet and very muddy! Sam Kitchin led the boys home in 58th, Alastair Scott was next in 65th, Rory Scott was 82nd, Alasdair Brown 111th and Alec Miller 141st.

Harry Henriksen last year’s u15 National Champion had moved up an age group to u17. Preparation for Harry  had not gone to plan but he was on the start line with team mate Alex Porteous ready to give the race a go. Harry ran a steady race to finish in 23rd place, team mate Alex had to pull out.

In the u20 men we had two runners competing for their respective universities, Christian Graham running for Dundee and Magnus Tait for Glasgow. Both probably had their best races of the season with Christian following just behind the lead group of 6 or 7 runners on the first lap and Magnus a litte further back in about 15th. In the second lap both worked their way through with Christian finishing 4th and helping his Dundee University team to win the silver team medal. Magnus also worked his way through to finish inside the top 10 in 9th place.

Christian on route to a brilliant 4th place! (Photo courtesy Will Graham)

In the u20 women’s race we had one athlete, Sarah Tait. Like Christian and Magnus, Sarah also had one of her best races of the winter season. Sarah was up in as high as 5th place going into the second lap but faded a little still finishing inside the top 10 in a super 8th place.

Sarah on her way to superb 8th place! (Photo courtesy Will Graham)

Keira Gore was our only senior lady competing today and considering she wasn’t feeling that great going into the race ran very well to finish in an impressive 19th place.

The last race of the day was the senior men and it got underway just as the heavens opened once again with sleet rain and wind. The course started off the day like a quagmire of mud so after nine races you can imagine what it was like for the men! All of our men that were competing are masters and Andrew McGlone was first home in 314th, followed by Scott Dickson in 437th, Dave Scott and Peter Ness were pretty close with Dave coming out on top in 456th with Peter in 467th. Our final two runners were Steve Brown 501st and Phil Parr-Burman in 580th

Well done to everyone who took part today.  A great effort with some impressive performances in very difficult conditions.

That’s the cross country season almost over for another season, just the schools and inter counties left. If you are involved in these then good luck we hope you have a great race.

Thanks to everyone for their help and support over the winter as always we greatly appreciate it –  it’s great to see everyone pulling together and mucking in to help and support each other – so thank you all.

The National cross country relay championships took place in Cumbernauld again this year. This has become the home of the event as it has been a long time since it has been held at any other venue.

Lasswade AC had three young female, three young male, one female and two male teams competing.

The first race of the day was the young females and Abbie Foster, Eloise Scott and Hannah Knipe were our three under 13 runners leading our teams off.  In a reversal of positions from the previous week first home was Hannah in 26th followed by Eloise 34th and Abbie 39th. Our second runners were Olivia Meikle,  Skye Foster and Amy McLaughlin. Olivia ran well pulling back 21 places to finish in 18th place, followed by U13 Bethan Kitchin in 47th and Skye Foster in 53rd.  The final leg runners were Abby McGlone, Amy McLaughlin and Rebekah Knipe.   First home with a solid run was Abby in 27th place, followed by Amy McLaughlin who pulled our second team up nine places to 44th and Rebekah Knipe in 71st place.  Great to see so many girls out competing and well done to you all, in particular thanks to all of you that stepped up an age group to complete teams.

Next were the young males and again we had three teams. Our under 13 runners were Rowan Taylor, Andrew McWilliams and Harry Miller.  Not to be outdone by the girls the boys again decided to reverse the positions from the previous week with Andrew leading the boys home with a great run in 6th place, next was Rowan in 18th and Harry 98th. Our under 15 boys were Alastair Scott, Sam Kitchin and Alec Miller. Sam was first off followed by Alastair and Alec. Alastair ran a solid leg to maintain his team’s position coming home in 17th, Sam was next home in 27th followed by Alec in 99th. The final leg runners were Harry Henriksen, Alex Porteous and Alasdair Brown.  Harry running with a sore heal finished in 21st place followed by Alex in 37th and Alasdair making up a few places to finish 88th. Good to have three complete teams and thanks to the boys who stepped up an age group.

In the ladies we had one team, Amy Frankland, Keira Gore, Ailsa Innes and Rachel Fagan. Amy ran a great first leg to keep us up at the top end of the field not too far from the leaders in 6th place. Keira was next off and also had a great run to maintain our position in 6th place and hand on to Ailsa who ran strongly to hand on to final leg runner Rachel. Rachel ran really well stepping up to complete the team and finishing 13th, probably one of our highest ladies finishes in this event.

The men were the final event of the day and we had two teams, Christian Graham, Martin Gore, Cameron Steven and Euan Hood and also a masters team of Andrew McGlone, Peter Ness, Steve Brown and Derrick Brydon.

Christian got the men of to a good start coming home in 11th place, Martin was next off and ran well keeping us just outside the top 20 in 21st. Cammy was on third leg and ran a solid leg to hand on to last leg runner Euan in 30th place. Euan stepping up to complete the team ran well to finish in 42nd.

The masters were Andy 108th on first leg, Peter 112th, Steve 105th and Derrick bringing them home in 95th. They were 18th masters team and 16th M50 team (excluding Derrick).

A great turnout for the event so thanks to everyone and well done on your individual and team performances!

This seasons cross country season got underway with the East District cross country championships which took place at Livingston on 12/10/2019. These relays are a great event and fun way to start off the cross country season. The weather conditions were good it was dry and sunny. The course looked good although some parts were very muddy as a result of the recent wet weather.

Lasswade AC are regular participants in this event and this year was no exception with Lasswade entering nine teams (two young female teams, two young male teams, two male teams and three womens teams).

The first race of the day was the young females and the two teams were Abbie Foster (u13), Amy McLaughlin (u15),  Olivia Meikle (u15) and Eloise Scott (u13), Skye Foster (U15) and Abby McGlone (U17).  The girls attributed themselves with our first team led home by Olivia Meikle finishing just outside the top 10 in 11th place with Abby McGlone leading our second team home just outside the top 20 in 21st place.

In the next race of the day, the young males, we had a late call off and were unfortunately unable to find a replacement. As a result we only had one team in this race. The team was Rowan Taylor (U13), Ross Wolfenden (U15) and Alastair Scott (U15) and the boys ran very well to finish just inside the top 15 in 14th place. Rowan Taylor was 8th equal fastest leg of the day for U13 runners.

The senior women were the next race of the day and unusually for us we had eight runners almost three complete teams – fantastic! The teams were Amy Frankland, Keira Gora and Sarah Tait in the first team, Ailsa Innes, Amy Smith and Niamh Shaw in the second team and Cathy Dickson and Rachel Fagan in the incomplete third team. Amy Frankland set the first team up with a great run finishing 3rd on the first leg handing on to Keira Gore who ran strongly to pull us up another place passing onto U20 Sarah Tait for the final leg. It was always going to be hard to hold on to 2nd as Sarah was being chased down by Annabel Simpson of Fife AC (who ended up running the fastest leg of the day by 25 seconds!) however Sarah ran very well and brought the team home comfortably in 3rd place. Our other athletes also ran very well with our second team inside the top 20 in 18th place.  Our masters ladies also did well we just need some more female masters to complete the team.

Sarah, Keira and Amy – Bronze Medal Winners 2019!

Congratulations to our bronze medallists, having spoken to Dave Hand we believe that this is the first time our senior women have ever won a team medal at the cross country relays.

The final event of the day was the men and we had two teams entered, Magnus Tait, Christian Graham, Euan Hood and Andrew McGlone were our first team and we had a complete masters team, Scott Dickson, Dave Scott, Peter Ness and Derrick Brydon.

Magnus flying towards the finish!

Magnus Tait led off our first team with a strong run to come home and hand over in 9th place to team mate Christian Graham who ran very well to pull back a few places setting Euan Hood off in 6th place. Cross Country is not Euan’s favourite event but he was happy to come an run and make up a team. Euan dug in and handed on to final leg runner Andrew McGlone in 13th place. Andrew one of our fastest masters ran well to bring the team home in 21st place.

Christian in action in the East Relays

Our masters team did very well to finish 58th overall and 15th masters team.

Well done and congratulations on your performances to everyone who took part.

For full reslts click here

Looking forward to the National Relays in a few weeks we definitely have opportunities for teams to be competitive and fighting for medals it’s just getting everyone we need to be available at the same time.