LASSWADE ATHLETIC CLUB

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!

The first of this season’s cross country league matches took place at Stirling on Saturday October 18th, 2014.

This race is held on the campus of Stirling University, it is  beautiful setting with a view of the Wallace monument in the background. The weather was extremely mild and although there was a threat of rain we were fortunate as there were only a few intermittent light showers. The course itself is undulating with a mixture of grassland, trail and an uphill finish!

The first race if the day was the under 11 girls and we had two girls running over the mile course.  Katie Burns the first Lasswade runner home in finishing in 23rd place followed by her team mate Isla Wilkie finishing 43rd in her first cross country race.

The under 11 Boys was the next race and we had three boys running.  Harry Henrikson led the boys and the race home finishing in 1st place in his first cross country for the club. Team mate Cameron Dickson had a strong run to finish in 18th place and he was followed home by our third runner Jamie Napier, also running his first cross country race, in 53rd place.

The next race was the under 13 girls, Hannah Little was the only Lasswade girl running today. Hannah ran a strong race to finish in 14th place in a close finish with several girls all finishing within a few seconds.  In the under 13 boys we had five runners with Oliver Snodgrass leading the boys home in 12th place, Rory Ferguson was next in 23rd followed closely by Lawrie Wilson in 27th place.  Lyle Jones, who went over on his ankle was our next finisher in 69th place followed by Trygg Hanson finishing 70th in his first cross country.

Cameron Steven, Matthew Smith and Kyle MacKenzie were our three runners in the under 17 men’s race.  Cameron led the team home in 23rd place, closely followed by Matthew in 24th place with Kyle completing the team in 31st place.

The ladies race had started five minutes after the under 17 men so they were running at the same time and we had four ladies running. Keira Murray led the team home with a good run in 10th place followed by Cathy Dickson with another good run in 54th place (18th Vet) . Nicole O’Neill was our final finisher in her first cross country race finishing 94th. Unfortunately,  Debra Murray dropped out at the start of the second lap, thankfully not injured just feels she is lacking a bit of fitness.

Next off  were the under 15 boys and there were three Lasswade runners in this race. Magnus Tait was first Lasswade finisher in 8th place with only a few seconds separating him from several runners around him.  Next home was Jamie Darling finishing 21st in a close finish with an athlete from Edinburgh AC who was given the same time. Jamie was closely followed by Thomas Snodgrass in 22nd place just a few seconds behind, good packing boys!

The penultimate race of the day was the under 15/17 girls with four Lasswade athletes running.  Lauren Dickson was in 2nd place for most of the race but treated us all to the most exciting finish of the day when she must have been 25 to 30 metres (maybe more) behind Kate Gallagher (Central) on the run into the finish, with a tremendous effort Lauren caught and passed Kate Gallagher just before the line to win by a second! Sarah Tait suffering from pains in her stomach still finished in the top 10!  Our next two girls also had strong runs with Imogen Wilson in 21st place and Lauren Wilkie finishing 30th.

The last race of the day was the men and there were seven men running. Our first finisher was Paul Benham running a steady race to finish in 48th place. Our next finisher was Ben Mitchell in his first cross country race for quite some time finishing 89th (21st Vet), he was followed home by Ross Finlayson in 108th place and then came Scott Dickson in 130th place (44th Vet).  Phil Parr-Burnham was next in 195th (93rd Vet) with Brian Wilson 198th (96th Vet) and our new member Kal Cave in 211th.

We definitely suffered a little due to the  school holidays and athletes being unavailable with incomplete teams in the under 11 and under 13 girls.  All the other teams were complete but we were still missing some athletes who will hopefully be available for the next league match at Alloa on November 22nd.

Well done to everyone who competed on the day especially to all the runners who did a cross country for the first time, there were a few of you today and we hope that you all enjoyed it.  Special mention to our individual winners Harry and Lauren and also to both the U15 boys and U15/17 girls teams who were the only teams to get into the top five on the day.

For full results click here