The Great Edinburgh Cross Country and Inter District Championships took place in Holyrood Park, Edinburgh on Saturday 10 January. The weather conditions made the course at Holyrood, which is very flat and open, extremely difficult. There had been high winds and heavy rain over the last few days and the conditions hadn’t improved. It was very cold with strong winds and some sleet/snow just to add to the challenge!
Lasswade AC have regularly had athletes selected for this event and today was no exception with six athletes having been selected and four competing.
In the under 15 girls event Lauren Dickson and Sarah Tait were selected to represent the East of Scotland. Sarah was on a school skiing trip to Italy so was unable to compete. Lauren did compete and was in the leading group of runners from the start of the race which was over three laps. Erin Wallace (West), Eloise Walker (East) and Kate Gallagher (East) started to open a slight gap towards the end of the second lap with Lauren in fifth place just behind another runner from the West team. Lauren ran strongly on the final lap to hold fifth position and help secure the win for the East team.
In the under 15 boys event Magnus Tait and Jamie Darling were both selected for the East of Scotland. Magnus was also away in Italy skiing so was unable to compete. However, Jamie Darling who has made a great improvement this year over the cross country was competing. This was the first time Jamie has been selected for this event and he ran strongly over the three lap course to finish in 25th place.
Our next runner was Ross Matheson who was competing in an event being held for the first time, which was a 2 x 1km international relay. Ross was teamed up with Laura Muir who ran an impressive first leg to hand over to Ross with a slight lead. Ross looking strong held the lead to just over the half way point when James Bowness took the lead. Ross dug in and fought all the way to the finish just being pipped for second place by Ross Murray.
The final Lasswade athlete competing was Amy Frankland who was representing Scottish Universities in the senior and U20 women’s race . Unfortunately the timing of this race seemed to coincide with the worst weather conditions with sleet snow and very cold winds battering the ladies. Amy dug in and ran well to finish in 44th place (10th U20).
It was great to see Lasswade AC so well represented once again at this event.
Congratulations to all the athletes on their fine performances.
