LASSWADE ATHLETIC CLUB

The second of this winter’s East District Cross Country League fixtures took place at Alloa on Saturday 22 November 2014.  Potentially it looked like it was going to be a very wet afternoon with a couple of heavy downpours of rain, however we were fortunate that it stayed dry for most of the afternoon. The course itself was fairly challenging with a few hills and it was also extremely muddy, perfect cross country course and conditions!

This league covers all age groups from under 11 through to senior athletes. Unfortunately, the number of Lasswade athletes competing on the day was disappointing, particularly in the younger age groups.

The first race of the day was the under 11 girls and we had no girls in this race. Next it was the turn of the under 11 boys with good performances by Cameron Dickson finishing 25th with club mate Matthew Cartledge in 44th place.

In the under 13 girls we had one runner, Hannah Little, who despite not feeling very well finished 17th. Ethan Gordon arriving for his race in the nick of time was our only runner in the under 13 boys age group finishing 63rd place.

Cameron Steven and Sam Talebi were our only runners in the under 17 men after a late call off from Kyle MacKenzie with an injured wrist.  Unfortunately Cameron was not feeling 100% and did not finish. Sam in his first race for us finished in 25th place.

The women started five minutes after the U17 men so were out on the course at the same time.  Cathy Dickson led our ladies home in 47th (14th Vet), closely followed by Debra Murray who finished 48th.

The next race was the under 15 boys and it was the first race of the day where Lasswade had a complete team. Magnus Tait led the boys home in 8th place, followed by the improving Jamie Darling in 14th, Thomas Snodgrass 31st and Euan Mckay 38th. The boys finished 5th team on the day and are sitting in 6th position for the season so far.

The penultimate race of the day was the under 15/17 girls where we had the ‘magnificent seven’ competing. Lauren Dickson led the girls home in 4th place, followed by Sarah Tait in 8th, Keanna MacInnes 24th, Lauren Wilkie 34th with team mate Caroline McKinlay a few seconds behind in 35th, Eilidh Brown 38th and Lauren Pearson 48th. The girls finished 3rd team on the day and are in 2nd place for the season.

The final race of the day was the men and we were down to four runners unfortunately after one of our runners had some car trouble on the way to event. In his first race of the winter Owen Miller ran well to finish 22nd with team mate Paul Benham 46th, next home was Ben Mitchell in 82nd (25th Vet)  and Doug McDonald in 154th place.

Thanks and well done to everyone who came out and competed on the day. The next and final league match is on 17 January 2015 at Broxburn. It would be good to get complete teams out for the last match so please mark it in your diaries.

The National short course cross country championships took place today at Bellahouston Park in Glasgow.

It was a beautiful day, dry, sunny and actually quite warm, especially for November! However, the course itself although relatively flat was very marshy and muddy in parts so they must have had a lot of wet weather in Glasgow recently.

Lasswade at three teams entered in this event, under 15 girls and boys and under 17 boys. We also had one under 20 running in the men’s race.

The first race of the day was the under 15 girls and Lasswade AC had six girls running in a field of just over seventy runners.  Lauren Dickson was up with the leaders early in the race closely followed by team mate Sarah Tait, the leading four including Lauren opened up a bit of a gap from the chasing group, the four were all still fairly close going into the last 400m but gaps began to appear as the pace began to wind up on the run in to the line. Lauren finished just outside the medals in fourth place; with team mate Sarah Tait with a strong run close behind in 7th place. One of our newer athletes Keanna McInnes in her first race for the club had a good run finishing in 25th place followed by Caroline McKinlay in 31st, Eilidh Brown in 41st and Lauren Wilkie in 43rd.  Brilliant runs by all the girls and a great team spirit!

Congratulations to Lauren, Sarah and Keanna who won the bronze medal for 3rd team.

The next race of the day was the under 15 boys and we had three runners in this race with just under seventy athletes in field.  Our first finisher was Jamie Darling, who has been improving with each race so far this winter. Jamie ran well to finish in 26th place. The next Lasswade athlete home was one of our newer members Ben Keay who has only raced a couple of times for us on the cross country so far but has been coming to training regularly and is enjoying the races. Ben ran well finishing in 59th place, team mate Euan McAlister was close behind with a strong run in 65th.

We had no under age 17 girls running so the next race for us was the under  age 17 boys race and we had three boys running Cameron Steven got off to a good start and was up with the leaders at the end of the first short lap but faded a bit on the second It was a good run and Cameron still finished just inside the top 20 in 19th place. Next Lasswade runner was Matthew Smith who had a strong finish in 36th place closely followed by Kyle MacKenzie in 39th place.

Callum Clark was our only runner in the under 20 men’s race which was incorporated with the senior men’s race. It was good to see Callum running again as he has been having some injury problems recently. Callum ran well to finish 107th overall  and 30th under 20 in a field of nearly 240 runners.

Well done to everyone who ran today, hope to see you all at Alloa in a few weeks time!