The above event took place at the Emirates Arena in Glasgow on Friday 03/01/2020, the first championship event of 2020.
Prior to the 3000m championship races there were two 600m races. Lasswade AC had two athletes competing in these. In the ladies race U20 Charlotte Clare finished 5th in 1.36.53 and in the Mens race U20 Euan Hood was 3rd in 1.27.72.
Lasswade AC had four athletes in action over the ten 3000m races.
The first to race was U20 Sarah Tait who has had a good start to the winter season over the cross country. Sarah continued her good form running very well and finishing just outside the medals in 4th place smashing her PB by 20 seconds running 10.05.18
Sarah in action (photo courtesy of Bobby Gavin)
Next under the starters orders was Harry Henriksen (U17). Having had a slow start to the season due to a sore heel Harry was keen to run well. The race set off at a fast pace but Harry stuck in and ran a strong race to finish 3rd U17 knocking 7 seconds of his PB running 9.14.88.
Harry Henriksen – U17 Bronze Medal Winner at 3K indoor champs (photo courtesy of Bobby Gavin)
Lasswade AC had two more athletes competing and Magnus Tait was the next off. These races are ceded so the races gets faster with each heat and the pace is fast from the gun. Magnus went off quick, dug in and was rewarded with his first sub 9.00 minute clocking in a time of 8.56.12 knocking 4.5 seconds from his previous best.
Magnus in action with David Addison close behind (photo courtesy of Bobby Gavin)
The final Lasswade AC athlete competing was Christian Graham. Christian was in the penultimate race of the evening. Having shown good form over the cross country so far this season he was looking to convert that form onto the track. This race set off at a quick pace, Christian also set off quickly but sat back off the pace of the leaders. In the final kilometre Christian maintained his pace as others faded resulting in him passing some of them to finish 3rd U20 in a new PB of 8.40.20 taking 3.5 seconds of his previous best.
Christian Graham – U20 Bronze Medalist leads Anthony Addison (photo courtesy of Bobby Gavin)
Congratulations to all of the athletes on their performances and new personal bests. A confidence booster ahead of next weeks cross country race in Stirling.
Great to see how some of these athletes have continued their training as they adapt to life at university and away from home.
As a result of recent performances at the UKA Cross Challenge in Liverpool and also the East District Championships a number of Lasswade AC athletes have either been selected for National or District representation.
Christian Graham who has been running well over the cross country this winter has been rewarded for his efforts by being selected for the U20 Scottish Team for the Home Countries XC international.
Christian Graham racing at Livingston earlier this season (photo courtesy of Will Graham)
In addition the following athletes have been selected for the East District Team, Andrew McWilliam (u13), Rowan Taylor (u13), Abbie Foster (u13), Olivia Meikle (u15), Keira Gore (Senior).
Andrew McWilliam in action at Piper Dam (Photo courtesy Neil Renton)
Niamh Shaw has been selected for the Scottish Universities team. Sarah Tait (u20) was also selected but has chosen to run as an individual in the U20 race (the universities compete in the senior race).
It is fantastic to see so many Lasswade athletes being selected for this event and a great advert for the club. Congratulations to all of the above athletes on their selections which are all very well deserved.
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!
The first of this seasons East District Cross Country league matches took place at Stirling on 19/10/2019. It looked like being a miserable day with heavy rain overnight and on the morning on the day of the event. However, the skies cleared and although underfoot conditions on parts of the course were very heavy and muddy the day itself was dry, sunny and mild.
In the first race of the day the under 11 girls we had our new Australian members running. Twin girls Ruby and Poppy ran great races to get the club off to a flying start finishing 2nd and 8th respectively. In the under 11 boys we only had one runner, Nathan Lawrence who ran strongly to finish in 44th place.
We had four under 13 girls running in the next race with Abbie Foster leading our girls home in 12th place, followed by Hannah Knipe in 17th, Eloise Scott in 25th and Bethan Kitchin 44th. This put the girls in 5th place in the league team event only four points behind 3rd place.
In the under 13 boys our first runner home was RowanTaylor in 8th place closely followed by Andrew McWilliam in 9th place. Our third counter was Cian Murray in 70th. The boys are currently sitting in 6th place in the league.
Under 15/17 girls run together in the league and we had five athletes in this race. Leading Lasswade home was Olivia Meikle in 21st, followed by Amy McLaughlin 37th, Abby McGlone 39th, Sky Foster 69th and Rebekah Knipe 75th.
Next up were the under 15 boys and Alastair Scott ran well to lead our team home in 31st, closely followed by Sam Kitchin in 33rd and Alasdair Brown running well after having tonsillitis to finish 49th.
In the under 17 men we only had on runner, Alex Porteous who had a solid run to finish in 22nd place.
Only the senior races left and the women were off first with only two Lasswade athletes which was a bit disappointing after having eight ladies at the relays a week earlier. Sarah Tait was up with the leaders from the start and had a good run to finish in 3rd place with the consistent Rachel Fagan our second counter in 47th place.
The final race of the day was the men and Lasswade had eight runners! Leading our men hom was Christian Graham who recovered after an early fall in the slippy conditions to finish 18th (5th U20), not too far behind was Magnus Tait in 24th (10th U20), Andrew McGlone was next counter in 132nd, followed by Scott Dickson 160th, close behind was Steve Brown in 166th, Dave Scott 207th, Phil Parr-Burnam 239th and Derrick Brydon 242nd.
Magnus and Christian alongside Andy Butchart at the start of the Men’s race.
The first league match is always a difficult race to get complete teams as it falls in the October school week so although there were some incomplete teams it was good to see so many athletes competing.
Thanks to everyone for your efforts and congratulations to you all on your performances!
It was announced this week on the Scottish Athletics website that our Club Treasurer Barbara Howie is to be inducted in to the Scottish Athletics hall of fame .
This is fantastic news and a very well deserved honour. Many congratulations to Barbara from everyone at Lasswade AC.
I have taken the information below from the Scottish athletics website.
Barbara Howie – wheelchair Paralympian
Barbara Howie made a major impact in her first Paralympic Games in Heidelberg, West Germany in 1972 where she set a world record and won three gold medals – 60m wheelchair, 4×40 Open and slalom 3.
She is Scotland’s most successful wheelchair track athletics Paralympian.
In the Games of 1976 in Toronto she followed up her impressive debut with another gold in the 60m wheelchair with a world record to add to her collection. Barbara’s final Paralympic Games were in the Netherlands in 1980 where she won her fifth Paralympic medal – a silver in the 60m wheelchair.
Barbara just missed out on all the technological changes that made such an impact on athletics in the years after she retired.
She continued her involvement in athletics in Scotland as an Official and was regularly present at major meets. Her major competition as an Official was the Commonwealth Games in 1986 in Edinburgh.
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.
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.
We also had a couple of runners, who are not included in the run, who had to pull out of the race before finishing. So although they are not included in the results, thanks also to them for coming along taking part and supporting the event.
At this years AGM it was agreed that future collection of training fees, for all members, should be done through Standing Order, rather than collection of fees on the night. We are looking to have this up and running from the start of October. As such, we are looking for all training members to complete the forms and return them by the end of this month.
There are two forms to complete. One should be returned to the club with the other being returned to the Bank / Building Society. It should also be possible to set up your standing order via online banking if you have this facility.
Please set the first payment date as October 1st 2019.
Forms will be available, and handed out, at training all throughout the month. You can also access a copy of the forms through the following link: Standing Order Mandate
Hopefully the forms are self explanatory, however if you have any questions please get in touch.
If you are completing the forms for more than one athlete, from the same family, just use one name for the reference and remember to include the discount for additional family members. So for example:
3 athletes training twice weekly would amount to:
1st athlete: £16.00 / 2nd athlete: £12.00 / 3rd athlete: £12.00 = total monthly: £40.00 Payment Reference: 1st athletes name
We will continue to collect fees at the gate for the remainder of the month.
Once again Lasswade AC athletes were out in force for the 2019 Scottish Athletics National Track and Field Championships. The events, held over three summer weekends at Grangemouth Stadium, bring together the best of the current, and emerging, crop of talented athletes from around Scotland and beyond.
One of the stars of this year’s Championships was U13 sprinter Shane Majekodunmi, taking home the gold medal in both the 100m and 200m. The final of the 100m saw the top three ranked U13 100m sprinters in the country go head to head in what was a classic race. Producing a massive personal best Shane took top spot, in a time of 12.89s, fractions ahead of Edinburgh AC’s Cameron Gettinby and Shetland AC’s Archie Irvine. Having qualified second fastest for the 200m final, Shane stepped it up for the final winning in another personal best time of 26.71s. Once again second place went to Edinburgh runner Cameron Gettinby in a time of 27.01s.
Also in action for the U13’s was Ramsay Blair. Despite missing out on qualification for the final of the 100m, Ramsay produced a new personal best time of 14.69s in his heat. In the javelin, Ramsay narrowly missed out on the medals with a final throw of 24.58m leaving him in fourth place.
Moving up the age groups into the U15s, jumper Kate Harvie came away with a gold and bronze medal. Kate’s clearance of 1.59m was good enough to take the gold in the High Jump ahead of VP Glasgows Jenna Hildith who took silver with a clearance of 1.57m. In the triple jump Kate took bronze with her second round jump of 10.69m. Libby White of Ayr Seaforth took the gold with a jump of 11.08m, narrowly edging out Holly Kirkwood, VP Glasgow, who took silver with a jump of 11.04m. 2018 National U13 High Jump Champion Matthew Tait, moving up to the U15s for this years event, finished in sixth place with a jump of 1.54m. On the track Olivia Meikle finished her 1500m heat in 7th in a time of 5.33.88s, while Amy McLaughlin came home 6th in her 800m heat in a time of 2.38.42s.
There were further medals for Lasswade AC athletes in the U17 Championships. Afterspending much of the previous year recovering from injury Adam Leighton is starting to get back to his best. His jump of 1.77m saw him take the silver medal, behind Pitreavie’s Sam Turnbull. 2018 champion Michelle Blaikie missed out on the medals in the narrowest of margins, finishing in 4th place, on countback, with a jump of 1.57m. Another Silver medal went to Imogen Lewis in the U17s Triple Jump with a first round jump of 10.95m. Winner on the day was Edinburgh AC’s Ellie O’Hara with a jump of 12.27m. Imogen and Ellie had gone head to head the previous weekend, stepping up an age group to compete in the U20’s Triple Jump. The result had been the same that time around with Imogen taking silver and Ellie Gold.
Elsewhere in the U20’s Championships Murray Blair ran well to finish 4th in his 200m heat, finishing in a time of 23.11s. Euan Hood qualified for the final of the 800m, finishing his heat 4th in a time of 2.01.08s. He went on to finish 6th in the final in a time of 2.01.86. In the women’s 100,. Rianna Sterricks finished her heat in 5th in a time of 13.01s.
It was a case of so near yet so far for U17 runner Elena Clark, despite fantastic performances, in both the 100m and 80m Hurdles. In the 100m heats Elena finished in a time of 13.11s, leaving her one place and a mere 5 hundredths of a second outside of qualifying for the final. In the 80m Hurdles Elena did manage to qualify for the final, only to narrowly miss out on a medal finishing in fourth place overall with a time of 12.33s. Megan McLaughlin was also in action in the U17’s discus, finishing with a throw of 17.72m.
Siblings Magnus and Sarah Tait are emerging as two of Scotland’s best talents in the steeplechase. Both were in action across this years Championships. In the National Open Events Championships Magnus took gold in the men’s 3000m Steeplechase, in a new Championship record time of 9.40.70s, finishing well ahead of second place runner Sam Fernando of Fife. Magnus followed this up with silvers in both the U20 mens 2000m steeplechase and Seniors 3000m steeplechase, finishing with new personal bests in both events. Sarah Tait was also a big medal winner, winning the U20 womens 1500m steeplechase in a time of 5.07.21. Beating the previous Championship record time that had stood since 2007. In the senior women’s 3000m steeplechase, Sarah added a silver medal finishing second behind Lauren Stoddart of Edinburgh AC.
After winning Gold in the U20 men’s 1500m last year, Matthew Smith moved up to the senior age group this year and once again came home with a medal. Having come through the heats to qualify for the final, Matthew finished a close fought final second, in a time of 4.00.47, to take silver. First place went to Michael Ferguson, of Aberdeen AC, just ahead in a time of 3.59.52s. Among the other seniors in action, Greg Louden qualified for the final of the 800m, with fellow Lasswade runner Cameron Steven narrowly missing out. Euan Hood ran a new personal best to qualify for the final of the 400m. Amy Frankland ran a new personal best time of 17.42.74 to finish 8th overall in the women’s 5000m, while Christian Graham finished his 5000m fourth in a time of 15.34.25s.
Another big performer at this years Championships was Stephen Park, a regular of the Lasswade AC Men’s League Team. Competing in the Masters event, Stephen took 3rd in the 100m, in a time of 11.62s. He then went one better to finish 2nd in the 200m, finishing in 23.17s behind Central runner Ian Horsborough. The Lasswade AC Men’s League team will be back in action this weekend, with a strong chance of winning promotion back to Division One.
