THE under-13, under-15 and under-20 athletes from Team East Lothian continued their success at national level in Grangemouth on the weekend of August 27-28.
This followed the successful previous performances of the under-17s and seniors in Aberdeen.
There was again plenty to celebrate, with personal bests (PBs) and final performances across the age groups, and medal winners coming from the under-15 and senior age categories.
In the under-15 100m events, both Aoife Swan-Ashe and Jake Nicol (Musselburgh) made it through to the semi-final in their respective heats. Swan-Ashe ran 13.25s, with Nicol’s time of 11.75s taking him through to the final. He then ran a superb 11.91s in the final to come in second place and win the silver medal.
Swan-Ashe and Nicol both performed again in the 200m, with Swan-Ashe making the semi-final, running 27.79s. She also took part in the long jump and got a PB jump of 4.37m to finish in ninth place overall.
Nicol made it through to the final in the 200m and won another silver medal in this event with a 24.26s performance.
The under-15 boys’ 1,500m race had great representation from Team East Lothian athletes, with four taking part in the event.
Howie Allison was the fastest finisher from TEL with an impressive PB time of 4m24.85s and just missed out on making the final. Charlie Copp (4m37.02s), Joe Smith (4m48.80s) and Jake Page (4m54.38s) also competed in the event, with Copp and Smith clocking PB times for their runs.
In the under-15 boys’ 800m race, Fraser Lupton eased through to the final, finishing first in his heat with a time of 2m11.31s. With the final later the same day, Lupton had to put in some hard work to stay in contention for the medals but it paid off as he won a well-deserved gold medal with an excellent 2m02.79s run.
There was also plenty of action in the under-13 age categories, with medal performances in the girls’ 800m, and both Matthew Connolly and Morven Kenny took part in three events each throughout the day.
In the girls’ 800m, Cerys Wright ran a PB performance to win the silver medal, crossing the line in 2m25.58s, less than a second behind the first-place runner. Freya Brown also had a fantastic race, running a PB to win the bronze medal with a time of 2m29.02s.
Connolly competed in the 100m, 200m and long jump. He made the semis in the 100m and ran 14.36s, then made the finals in the 200m to run 30.32s. He also did well in the long jump, jumping 3.8m.
Kenny took part in the 800m, 70m hurdles and high jump. She had a good race in the 800m, finishing 10th overall with a time of 2m38.67s. She was fifth in her 70m hurdles heat, running 13.53s, and had a PB performance in the high jump with 1.32m and finished seventh.
There were some strong performances in the under-20 championships, with Adam Hoole dominating the scoreboard – his performance in three events resulted in him taking home a medal in each.
He won silver in the long jump with 7.01m, silver in the discus with a throw of 39.91m, and gold in the 110m hurdles with a time of 14.75s – a sterling day’s effort from the combined events athlete.
Jack Renton and Megan Cummings (Musselburgh) both competed in the 200m, posting times of 25.22s and 28.00s respectively to finish fifth and eighth in their heats. Maria Lyle (T35 categorisation athlete) was back in action with a 15.39s 100m heat.
Laura Buchan and Erin Hall both had medal-winning performances in the triple jump. Buchan won gold with a jump of 10.83m and Hall silver with 10.78m. Buchan also finished fifth in the long jump with a 5.24m performance.
Joanne Welch had a good competition, throwing 31.36m in the hammer to finish in fourth place, and then 7.77m in the shot put to finish in seventh overall.
This was the last major Scottish track event for the club in 2022, with a small rest before the cross-country season.
Team East Lothian are hosting a trail race event on October 24 at Binning Wood. All are welcome to run, with races for all age groups from under-nines (1.6k) to a 6k route for seniors.
Full details are available at teameastlothian.org.uk
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