August 2023

The Age Group Champs, otherwise known as “the Nationals” are a key event for many club athletes. This year Team East Lothian had fantastic representation across all age groups, in both weekends at Grangemouth and Aberdeen.  

Grangemouth

The first weekend was the 12^th and 13^th of August in Grangemouth, with events for the Under 17 and Seniors age groups.  

First out the blocks was Kerry Morris, in the Senior Women’s 100m heat, where she clocked a time of 12.77s. Jake Nicol (Musselburgh) was next on the track, competing in the Under 17 Men’s 100m and 200m throughout the day, and progressing to the semi-finals in both events. Jake was 6^th in both the 100m and 200m semi-finals, clocking times of  11.68s and 24.20s, respectively.  

Molly Curran (Musselburgh) was sprinting in both the Under 17 Women’s 100m and 200m. She was 7^th in both heats with respective times of 14.82s and 30.42s.  

Moving to the middle distance events, Fraser Lupton, won his heat in the Under 17 Men’s 800m and cruised through to the final, where he ultimately won bronze in a time of 1m58.8s. In the Under 17 Women’s 800m, Cristina Eliot ran 2m49.72s in Heat 1.  

Isaac Stevenson finished 5^th in his 400m heat for U17 Men, and qualified for the finals with a time of 55.00s. Isaac then turned in another fast performance of 55.03s to finish 8^th in the final.  

There was plenty of action on the track in the 1500m. Eily Sinclair ran 5m10.29s and finished 6^th place in her heat in the Under 17 Women’s category. We had four athletes compete in the Under 17 Men’s 1500m. Ronnie Brown and Innes Wright placed 3^rd and 4^th in their respective heats, progressing to the finals. Charlie Copp was 7^th in his heat with a time of 4m25.69s, whilst Magnus Lawson was 10^th in his heat, running 4m38.43s. In the finals, Ronnie finished in 8^th place with a time of 4m7.03s and Innes Wright placed 10^th, with a 4:14.64 run.   

Multi-eventer, Adam Hoole, tackled the Senior Men’s Pole Vault competition and won silver, with a performance of 4.20m. Staying with the field events, Laura Buchan finished 6^th in the Senior Women’s Triple Jump, with a mark of 10.82m. Not done for the day, Laura also competed in the Senior Women’s Long Jump, and finished in 7^th place with a jump of 5.05m. Kerry Morris was 6^th in the Senior Women’s Long Jump with a jump of 5.26m.  

Aberdeen

In Aberdeen on 19^th and 20^th August it was Age Groups Champs for Under 13, Under 15 and Seniors.  

In the Under 15 Boys 100m Ben Anderson ran 13.03s to finish 5^th in his heat, whilst Aaron Mitchell ran 12.20s in his heat to go through to the finals. Aaron finished 6^th in the final with a time of 12.14s. Aaron also ran in the Under 15 Boys 200m and qualified for the final crossing the line 2^nd in his heat. Aaron came 6^th in the final in a time of 25.08s.  

We had representation in each of the Under 15 Boys 1500m heats, with Howie Allison cruising over the line in 2^nd place to qualify for the final, and Joe Smith finishing 7^th also qualifying for the final. The Under 15 Girls 1500m was a straight final, and Cerys Wright had a brilliant run to win the silver medal with a time of 4m46.65s. It is the third time she has won silver at Nationals! In the Under 15 Boys final, Howie won an impressive bronze medal with a time of 4m26.55s.  

There were more medals to come. In the Under 15 Girls 300m Aoife Swan-Ashe made short work of the heats and finished first to go safely through to the finals. Aoife then ran 42.72s to win silver in the finals. In the Under 15 Girls 800m Freya Brown finished 4^th in her heat and qualified for the finals. She ran very well in the final later in the day and finished 7^th place with a time of 2m30.28s.  

In the Under 15 Boys 800m, Jake Page finished in 4^th in his heat with a time of 2m21.9s. In the Senior Women 800m Maja Thomson finished 5^th in her heat, running 2m28.5s. Jamie Smith competed in the Under 20 Men’s 800m and finished in 6^th place in his heat, clocking 2m4.80s.

In the Under 13 Girls 800m, Ava Rose Curtis was 3^rd in Section 2 with a time of 2m35s, whilst Morven Kenny was 5^th in Section 3, running 2m32.95s. Morven finished 6^th overall and Ava 9^th – a fabulous result out of a very large field of 29 athletes. Ava Rose Curtis also ran in the Under 13 Girls 200m finishing 7^th in her section with a time of 31.37s, and 24^th overall.  

Ben Anderson was 7^th in the Under 15 Boys Long Jump with a jump of 4.82m. Archie Brown (Haddington) was 5^th in the Under 13 Boys Long Jump with a jump of 4.47m.  

Morven Kenny qualified for the final in the Under 13 Girls 70m hurdles and finished 8^th overall with a time of 12.76s. Imogen Turner had a superb run in the Under 13 Girls 1500m and won gold, crossing the line first in a winning time of 5m11.06s.  

It was a superb effort from  the athletes to compete at this level, with many podium positions for the club.