On Saturday 7^th October Team East Lothian (TEL) sent a number of young athletes to the Scottish Athletics East District Cross Country Relays in Livingston.  With the clouds opening up for almost the previous 24 hours, the conditions underfoot for the runners was wet, slippery and muddy and there was little reprieve from the rain all day!

The relays for the younger runners are made up of different age groups from under 13 to under 17,  and allows the athletics clubs to field more than one team.  In the young female category, TEL fielded 3 teams:

Imogen Tuner, Cerys Wright, Olivia Robbins

Ava-Rose Curtis, Freya Brown, Rachel Stevens

Tessa Russell, Sula Semple, Lois Thomson

All teams ran very well considering the conditions, with Imogen, Cerys and Olivia winning the gold medal and both Imogen and Cerys running the fasted first and seconds legs of the day.  Ava, Freya and Rachel achieving a superb 4^th place and Tessa, Sula and Lois achieving 20^th place overall.

In the young male race, TEL fielded one team comprising Josh Cooper, Joe Smith and Fraser Lupton.  All three ran superbly in a very competitive race and were rewarded with the bronze medal.

In the senior men’s race, world under 17 age group record holder for the mile,  Corey Campbell ran a solo first leg and ran the fastest leg of the day.

The Scottish Schools Athletics Association Road Race Championships was held at Pittencreif Park in Dunfermline on Wednesday 4^th August with Team East Lothian being well represented across all the age group races.  Weather was typically Scottish with the heavens opening up just before the high school races got underway.  In the S1 girls race, Imogen Turner  (North Berwick High School) ran a superb race to take the win over the 2.5k distance in 8 minutes dead.  Ava-Rose Curtis (Ross High School) also had a great run to finish 6^th in the same race in 8:39.

In the S1 boys event Josh Cooper (North Berwick High School) had a closely fought race and was just pipped for the win but took a very credible silver medal in a time of 7:46 over the same 2.5k course.

Cerys Wright (North Berwick High School) ran convincingly to take the gold medal in the 3^rd/4^th year girls race, with Matthew Connolly (Dunbar High School) running well in the boys race. 

There were also top 10 finishes for Howie Allison (Loretto School) and Fraser Lupton (James Gillespie’s High School) in the senior boys race,  as well as great runs from Charlie Copp (Portobello High School), Magnus Lawson (Loretto School), Joe Smith (Portobello High School) and Thomas Gornall (Dunbar High School) in the same race.

In the senior girls race there were fine performances from Eily Sinclair (Portobello High School), Rachel Stevens (North Berwick High School), Ella Nicolson (Portobello High School) and Cristina Elliot (Portobello High School).  Portobello High School taking home the silver medal in the team competition.