The final fixtures of the Forth Valley League and CSSAL League took place on the weekend of 9th & 10th August making it a busy weekend, especially for the young athletes competing on both days.
Forth Valley League – Grangemouth
On Saturday, our team of young athletes finished 5th on the day and 4th overall in the league. Numbers were down due to holidays but it was great to see two of our newer members, Roddy and Angus, competing for the club for the first time. Both boys in the under 11 age group ran fantastically well, with Roddy winning his first race, the “B” string 100m, 2nd in both the “B” 200m and 3rd in the “A” shot putt. Angus came 2nd in the “B” 800m and 2nd in the “A” 200m.
Other noteworthy performances were Finlay’s 800m in 2m32.5 seconds which would rank him as the top Under 11 in Scotland over 800m; Archie’s 300m in 39.9 and Isla M’s great run in the 800m which was a new PB in 2m32.5.
There were also at least a dozen PBs from the team of 20 – not including events where athletes were competing for the first time. It’s great to see you all competing and trying your best.
Results: https://data.opentrack.run/en-gb/x/2025/GBR/fvl-m3-d2/
Awards
Last season, the Forth Valley League introduced two new trophies – the “Spirit of the League” awards. Both trophies were named in memory of two Lasswade officials – Kenny Marshall and Angela McLaughlin who were long serving members of the league. A third trophy was introduced this year – this time in memory of David McConnell, another of Lasswade’s long-serving officials and coach. The aim of the awards is to recognise non-competitive achievements over the season and the winner of this year’s Division 2 trophy, the Angela McLaughlin trophy was our own Ollie MacIntyre. Ollie has competed in all but one of the Forth Valley League competitions over the last two seasons, often doing 3 events each time and always competing with a smile regardless of which event he’s been asked to do. Every time he competes, he almost always comes away with a PB and is a great member of the team.
Well done, Ollie.
Photos from the day can be found here:
https://photos.hikeandclick.scot/Sports/2025/Forth-Valley-League-Match-3-9th-Aug
Central and South Scotland League – Crownpoint
Another small team of Lasswade athletes headed over to Glasgow to compete in the final match of the CSSAL League. A good show in the two previous matches had Lassade sitting in 2nd place overall coming into the final match but it was touch and go whether Lasswade’s team of 21 athletes could hold on to 2nd place.
The competition got off to a great start with Dave Wright donning the Lasswade vest for the first time in the Master’s 3000m race. After a steady start, Dave started picking off the runners ahead of him one by one finishing in 6th place overall across both divisions, but as the winner of the Division 2 Master’s race.
The dynamic duo of Kupa and Finlay were both in fantastic form. Both tackled the 100m, 600m and Long Jump and scored 82 points out of a possible 84 (5 first places and one 2nd place). Finlay’s 600m time on 1:48.9 was just outside the league record on 1:48.59.
Lachlan, Matthew and Gregor weighed in with another 70 points for the Under 13 boys. Both Matthew and Lachlan had competed in the Forth Valley League on Saturday so it was great to see them turning out for the team again to score vital points.
Ollie was back again as the only representative in Under 15 boys. Nursing a tight calf from running the 800m at Grangemouth, Ollie still managed to compete in the discus where he was just shy of the PB he set the day before; and the shot putt where he recorded a new PB.
Ruaridh ran a big PB in the Under 17s 100m clocking 12.0s to finish 3rd. Struan was 5th in the 800m race.
The Senior Men could only muster 3 athletes. Alec who has competed in each of the 3 CSSAL competitions picked up another PB in the 100m clocking 11.8s to win the “B” race. He also finished 2nd in the “A” long jump and 3rd in the “B” discus. John McOmish won the “B” discus and significantly scored 20 points as an official (more on that later!). Ben was 4th in the “A” 100m and 1st in the “B” Long Jump.
The three Under 13 girls were also dominant in the 100m, Long Jump and High Jump. Orla M, Lara and Anatswa tackled two events each and scored another 78 points (maximum possible 84!). Anatswa, Lara, Gregor and Matthew made up the mixed 100m relay team who finished 3rd.
In the Under 15 Girls, Rosa ran a PB in the 800m and teamed up with Florence in the long jump where she equalled her PB from the Saturday. Flo managed a new PB in the long jump clearing 4 meters for the first time. Elsa and Aoife had strong competition in the 100m, both finishing 8th.
Beth and Emma completed a double-double in the Under 17s winning the 800m and long jump competitions in both the “A” and “B” events. To fill in the time between events, both decided to give the shot a shot(!) as well. To complete a busy day, both girls teamed up with Struan and Ruairidh in the 100m relay. In a close race with all three contesting teams dead level on the final changeover, Ruaridh pulled away for the victory.
With the athletes’ points all added-up, our small team of 21 athletes finished in 6th place overall, just 7 points behind North Ayrshire in 5th.
The provisional league table had Lasswade in 3rd place overall, tied with Helensburgh on 18 league points but with Helensburgh having scored more match points over the 3 matches, Helensburgh were provisionally sitting in 2nd place.
It was a nervous wait over the next couple of days while all the results were checked over and the bonus points for officials were calculated….
So not for the first time in recent history, Lasswade’s officials and helpers made the difference. The 70 additional points from our officials and helpers – John, Megan, Ruth and Fiona gave us an extra match 20 points over to North Ayrshire and an important extra league point.
It would be good to see more athletes representing the club next season in Division one. Although the standard of competition is a bit of a step-up from Division 2, the main thing for being competitive in any league competition is to cover as many events as possible across each of the age groups in each of the matches and we certainly have enough talented athletes to do that.
