Last weekend Laurence travelled to Bulgaria to represent Great Britain in the European Youth Orienteering Championships. He was selected as one of the 4 U16 boys in the 16 strong team after a good set of results earlier in the season.

The first day was the sprint distance which is a 12 – 15 minute fast paced event held in an urban and parkland environment.  Laurence held his head well in his first major international competition and finished in 20th place out of 98 starters, first Brit in his age class and one of the best British results of the competition.

The next day was the long distance event which was around an hour of running over a forested hillside. This was a tough physical and technical challenge unlike any areas at home, and despite losing time on some tricky legs, Laurence pushed hard to get a solid result.

These first two results earned Laurence a place in the relay team.  This consisted of three legs of about 30 mins in the forest. Unlike the individual events which are time trials where everyone runs the same course, the relay is a mass start, but with teams having slightly different courses at different parts of the race. This makes for a high pressure environment where it is easy to be distracted by other runners going in slightly different directions after a few common controls. The U16 boys acquitted themselves well finishing in 7th place, a tantalising 1 second away from 6th which earns an international diploma, and the best British result of the day. 

Overall the trip was a fantastic experience and Laurence is motivated to try to achieve selection again for next year’s championships.

This will be taking place on Sunday 23rd July at Kilmarnock.

This is open to all members from Under 11s to Masters athletes. After the first two matches, it’s pretty much neck and neck between Lasswade and Corstorphine at the top of the table so it would be really good to get another strong team out to secure promotion.

If you’re interested in competing, please declare your interest using this form as soon as possible

The timetable of events is here.

Congratulations to Sarah Tait on winning the u23 English Championships 3000m steeplechase today. Sarah had already achieved the standard for the European Championships & her win today has earned her automatic selection.

Saturday 18th June, Grangemouth

Saturday saw the 2^nd match of the Forth Valley League at Grangemouth Stadium.  The girls turned out in force and the boys team was hit by a number of withdrawals due to injury but it was still a great day of athletics. 

Lachlan, Joella, Darcy and Issy all competed for Lasswade on the track for the first time.  Joella, who having turned 9 just a few days before the competition was only just old enough to compete.  Well done to all of you – the first competition is always the hardest and hopefully we’ll see you on the track again soon.

PBs came from Ollie in the U13 javelin, Lara in the U11 600m, Mia in the u13 200m and Beth in the U15 1500m.  A lot of the team are still new to competition and competing in new events so not too many PBs to be expected this time around.

The competition ended with the 4x100m relays and Lasswade managed to assemble 4 out of 6 possible teams.  The U11 girls lead the way with a really amazing performance to romp home well ahead of the competition.  Surprisingly, the U11 boys all claimed to have never done a relay, even in training and so the main objective for them was to get the baton around safely and fortunately, that was mission accomplished!  The U13 girls also put in a great performance to finish comfortably in 2^nd place and the U15 girls finished a very respectable 3^rd against very strong teams from Livingston and Haddington. 

Provisional Results. If you spot any mistakes, please let us know!

Big thank you to the parents who helped with events on the day – Grant, Rich and Dave; Liz and Ross for assisting our U11 relay teams; Officials (Ruth, Linden, Susan and John).

The final FVL competition is back at Grangemouth on August 27^th but if you can’t wait until then for your next competition, then sign-up for the CSSAL League at Kilmarnock on 23^rd July. 

As National Volunteers’ Week draws to a close we hope you have enjoyed hearing from some of the fabulous volunteers at Lasswade AC.

Are you interested in joining them to take the club forward?

In particular we need Help at Training from athletes parents, families or friends……. Even if you can only help occasionally that would be great! Without this much needed help we will be unable to reduce our substantial waiting list.

For further info on what is involved, please see our coaching page

Is coaching is not for you? No worries, we still need your help with other areas in the club please our volunteering page. Many of these roles need no athletics knowledge

Please follow the links on these pages to declare your interest in volunteering. Or, email Harry at cdo@lasswade-ac.org.uk for a friendly chat.

Saturday 4th June

A number of Lasswade athletes took part in the opening fixture of the Border Games series at Earlston at the weekend. Lasswade’s star athlete was Gregor Knight who won the 200m and was joint first in Veteran’s 90m, with 3 of his 4 races taking place in the space of less than 20 minutes. Unfortunately, none of this was captured in the video highlights below so you’ll just have to take our word for it .

Petter and Ramsay also qualified for the final of the 200m and a great effort from Petter, the backmarker in the final saw him finish in 2nd place behind Gregor.

The final of the 90m featured three Lasswade athletes – Keith Kong, Charlie Carstairs and Graeme Armstrong. Keith, running off a start of 13.5m finished in 3rd place with Graeme off 18.5m in 5th and Charlie, back marker off 7.5m was 6th.

Full report from the Southern Reporter

Saturday 17th June, Grangemouth

We currently have just 17 athletes declaring interest to compete:

U11s: 7 girls, 1 boy
U13s: 4 girls, 0 boys
U15s: 4 girls, 1 boy

As you can see, we really need more boys out competing and also in the upper age groups.

The timetable and available events for this fixture can be found on the club website.

http://www.lasswade-ac.org.uk/…/track-field-comps…/

After a good turnout for the first fixture at Livingston, it would be great to repeat this.

Unfortunately, we’re not able to put on a minibus for Grangemouth but if you want to compete and transport is an issue please get in touch.

Friday 1st June

A glorious sunny weekend kicked off with the Glasgow Athletics Association Miler meet at Crownpoint on Friday evening. There were a number of Lasswade athletes participating and some great performances all round.

Early action included Ken retrieving Ruaridh’s club hoody from Jason who had picked it up at the last CSSL match in Linwood. Hopefully the hoody will be back with Ruaridh after its relay around the central belt.

As far as actual athletics there was a mix of 800m and 3k with u17 and u20 Scottish Championship being contested across the paced races. First in action was Sarah Tait who was in a busy mixed heat. Sarah ran well with some challenging tactical racing and finished as second senior woman with a time just 2 seconds off her PB and a seasons best.
Next up was Andrew McWilliam who was in a fast heat with another Lasswade athlete, Harry Henriksen, although Harry was running in Edinburgh Uni kit. Harry started very strongly and did well to hold on for 3rd while Andrew also had a fast start and was able to hold on for 6th place in his heat but ahead of the other u17 athletes to claim the U17 3k championship title. The open nature of the races meant that Andrew didn’t realise he had won a medal so was off on his cool down during the medal presentation so had to settle for a handshake and a gold medal at the end of the evening rather than getting to stand at the top of the podium. Surprisingly, this is not the first time this has happened…
In the 800m Alastair Scott was running at u20 in a competitive heat where almost everyone set a new PB, including Alastair dipping below 1:58 for the first time. Finishing the evening off was Greg Louden who had a solid run in a fast heat.

Well done to all the Lasswade athletes.

Scottish Schools Pentathlon

Saturday 3rd June

There were two Lasswade athletes competing in Scottish schools pentathlon at Grangemouth stadium, Beth and Emma both competing in their first multi event in u14 age group. Details are sketchy but both athletes put in some good performances across 75m hurdles, long jump, high jump, shot put and 800m. There may have been some sunburn but they both seemed to enjoy themselves despite this and will have learned a lot about the demands of multi events. Well done!

Thanks to Ken McWilliam for providing the reports.

Continuing the National Volunteers’ Week celebrations, we want to share the stories of our volunteers and how they keep the Lasswade AC wheels going!

Read stories below from a few members of our team, get to know them better and find out more about their background. You’ll be amazed at how many didn’t have athletics experience before they started!

Cathy Dickson  has been involved with the club since her daughter joined in 2011, followed by her son a couple of years later. They benefited so much from the opportunities training and competing at the club gave them that she wanted to help keep the club running for the next generation coming through. Not having much knowledge on coaching she took on the role of membership secretary. Cathy has also run for the club in several cross-country races over the years.

Ken McWilliam volunteers as coaching assistant on Monday evenings. He has been coming along to Lasswade since late 2021, following his children who had been involved for several years.

Ken doesn’t really have any background in athletics, but he has now started training with the endurance group on a Thursday and pulls on a Lasswade vest at cross country races, and more recently on the track.

 He really appreciates the commitment and joy that coaches and officials bring to the club and events, and of course encouraging the kids on their athletics journey! It’s quite a buzz seeing and hearing about their performances and rivalries!

Andy Sobik has been part of the club since its infancy and was inspired by the resourcefulness and enthusiasm for grassroots athletics by the founding members, he competed for the club on and off for 25 years.

Andy was involved in professional/amateur/masters sprinting where he acquired a great understanding and appreciation of the pleasure, drive (and pain) required as an individual or as a team/club member.

Between 2008-2020, Andy became the Lasswade AC Men’s Team manager giving the lads a fantastic opportunity to achieve some personal, team and club successes. This finally led him to taking on the senior sprints coaching supporting others to reach their potential.

Club camaraderie and sharing in the joys of personal, team, club, national and international successes of club members past and present is second to none.”

As part of National Volunteers’ Week, from June 1st to the 7th, clubs and organisations across the land will be celebrating the amazing contribution volunteers make. Here at Lasswade AC we thank each and every one of our brilliant team who give up their time to make our club function. These are our coaches, officials, committee, admin, publicity, social media………. Whatever role you play we are grateful of your efforts, THANK YOU!

When members attend training over the week, we invite them to thank their coach, or any other volunteer present. This can be by handshake, fist bump, saying thanks……. or leave a comment on this post.

We will continue the celebrations over the course of the week by hearing why our volunteers help.