Youth Development League Report

Sunday 26th June, Grangemouth

Sunday saw the final Youth Development League match of the season held at Grangemouth Stadium. In our first match of the season, we had just 6 athletes competing and understandably, the team finished in last place. Match two, saw a slightly better turn out with 11 athletes but again, with such small numbers competing another last place followed. With 22 athletes turning out on Sunday, we were finally starting to see a team size that were closer to our pre-Covid levels.

Matilde stepped on to the track for the first event of the day in the Under 15 girls 75m hurdles – her first time competing in this event. Unfortunately, Matilde clipped the first hurdle which throwing threw her off her stride but she showed great resilience to recover from this and finish strongly.

She later went on to record a PB in her shot putt. Also scoring a PB in the shot putt was Lucy finishing 2^nd in the Under 13s ‘A’ event. Megan finished 6^th in the ‘B’ event which unfortunately happened to be on at the same time as her long jump. Despite having to run between the two events and jumping into a strong wind, Megan still managed to improve her long jump PB by 30cm. Lucy backed up her 2^nd place in the shot putt with 8^th place in the 800m and a great 3^rd place in the javelin – another athlete trying out a new event for the first time and with only one training session behind her.

The strong headwind in the home straight was not going to favour the sprinters, but Corey still managed two PBs in the 100m and 200m.

Not to be outdone, Yasmin and Maya also achieved PBs in the 100m and 200m respectively. Had it not been for a -6m/s wind, Emily would have surely recorded a PB in her 100m race but will be happy to have finished 2^nd in the ‘A’ race just a stride behind the winner.

Beth, running in the under 13s 150m race finished 2^nd in the ‘A’ race – a very close race where she finished just 0.04s behind the winner. Finally, but not least, Lewis making his debut for the club scored vital points in the 100m and long jump – more on that later.

Eloise put in solid performances in the 300m, 800m as usual but it was the long jump where she saw the most success winning the ‘A’ event with a new PB (almost a metre improvement despite jumping into the strong wind). Abbie also recorded a PB in the long jump and finished 6^th in the ‘A’ 200m and 3^rd in the ‘B’ 800m.

The Under 15 girls 1500m saw a great race with both Lasswade athletes, Bethan and Freya settling into the lead pack after the first lap. Both girls pushed hard and the pack was whittled down to three athletes going into the last lap, with both Lasswade athletes in contention. With 300m to go, it was Bethan who hit the front using her 800m speed to open up a convincing lead coming down the home straight.

Freya came in 3^rd overall but this meant Lasswade actually bagged all the points in this event with winners of both the ‘A’ and ‘B’ races and both girls running PBs. Freya also recorded a PB in the high jump.

In the boys middle distance events, Struan and Jamie both ran well to record PBs in their 800m races. Jonathan finished 6^th in the under 15s 800m ‘A’ race having also competed on Friday night at Livingston and getting a PB in his 1500m race.

Finlay made his debut for the club in the 1200m but notably also agreed to step in to the 4x100m relay team which was less than 15 minutes after his gruelling 1200m race. Without this display of team spirit, there wouldn’t have been a 4x100m relay team for the Under 13s. Well done Finlay.

Also representing Lasswade for the first time this season were Under 13 boys Moses, Michael and Will. It was great to finally see some under 13 boys representing the club on the track this season. The boys showed great camaraderie throughout the day, cheering on their team mates and fist-bumping their way through the afternoon. I am sure that we will hear more about them in future competitions.

Rain was a constant threat throughout the day and unfortunately, it was the relay teams that had to endure a short wet spell. As well as the under 13 boys relay team, a strong turnout from the under 15 girls meant we could actually put out both a 4x100m and 4x300m relay team. Slick baton changes in the 4x100m saw the girls finish 6^th with Ruth making her debut for Lasswade. In the last event of the day for Lasswade, the 4x300m relay team, despite being more accustomed to slightly longer distances they managed to finish in a fantastic 3^rd place.

Lasswade finished in 7^th place on the day. Excluding the points gained from our club officials, we were just 5.5 points ahead of the team in 8^th place and this illustrates how every single member of the team’s can make a difference to the overall score. Even the athletes who come in last place in their events contribute to the team score and your efforts never go unrecognised.

Thanks:

Linden, Dave, Ruth, John and Susan our amazing officials who help ensure that these events can go ahead and run like clockwork. Thanks also to Alistair Scott and Andy Kitchin who also helped Lasswade provide their quota of helpers.
As always, our great team of coaches and parent helpers for bringing out the best in our athletes.
Parents for bringing the athletes to the competitions and supporting Team Lasswade.