Linlithgow Athletics Club

WAVA Wednesday is back for the autumn and this week the spotlight is on Jill Horsburgh🏃‍♀️

Jill's been navigating injury and health challenges on and off for a few years, and for a while there she was convinced her times were only ever going one way. Turns out that wasn't the case.

Her achievements this year include:
⭐ 24:13 at West Lothian College 5k and 2nd in her age category
⭐ 49:27 at the Jack Crawford 10k, coming in 2nd in her age category again.

That's an age grading of 82.67% for the 5k and 81.57% for the 10k 👏 Let’s not even get started on her Parkrun WAVA achievements - we’ll save that for a separate post!

She's also stopped counting podiums and started counting the whole field. At the recent Tour, 32.5 miles of mixed terrain over 4 days, she finished 34th out of 342 women and 3rd oldest female in the race. Her words: "I'll take that as a win." We agree.

Her tip for anyone fighting the injury cycle: strength training. Specifically, Body Pump. Specifically, Tor's classes. 😉

Sub 25 for a 5k, sub 50 for a 10k. She thought those days were long gone. They weren't. Total inspiration to many.



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LAC YOUTH SQUAD - WEEKEND SUCCESS

🏆 GENERAL SOSABOWSKI RACE
Our LAC Youth team of 3 brought home a collection of medals and trophies!
🥇 Natalia Mandula – 1st Girl
🥇 Oliver Geraghty – 1st Boy
🥈 Euan Emery – 2nd Boy
And it wasn't just the youths smashing it! A huge well done to the parents too, with Natalia’s mum taking 1st Woman and brilliant runs from the dads. Great family efforts ❤️

🏅 PARKRUN MILESTONES!
⭐ Amelia Ferrario continues her incredible PB streak — excellent running!
⭐ Lewis Bogle is following the same path with another PB!
⭐ Hunter Salem knocked a massive 23 seconds off his PB! 🚀
👏 Maisie Archer & Findlay Hay's age gradings are fantastic!

🏊‍♀️🏃‍♀️ AQUATHLON SUCCESS - A massive well done to Sophia Ferrario taking on the Loch Lomond Aquathlon!
🥉 3rd place in the 250m swim + 2k run
🥉 3rd female in the 750m swim!

What a talented bunch we have! 🤩

🌟 LAC YOUTH SQUAD UPDATE 🌟
Well, it’s not just the schools that are back — our LAC Youth Squad are back in action too! 🏃‍♀️🏃‍♂️

CLUB MILE – 4 AUGUST - A number of our youth squad took part in the LAC Club Mile and they were incredible racing with the adults!
🥇 Maisie A — 1st in Race 1
🥈 Alex M — 2nd in Race 2
Strong performances too from Aoife Kelly and Isla Macrae across Race 2 and for Race 3, Natalia Mandula positioned herself brilliantly alongside some of the fastest adult members of the club.

LIVINGSTON OPEN – 14 AUGUST
80m
🥇 Mia Barnett — 1st in her age category
👏 PBs and fast runs from James Ferarrio, Nate Patterson, Lewis Bogle and Isla Macrae
800m
- Mia Barnett — 2nd in age category
- Akira Nagda — 4th in age category
- Nate Patterson — 8th in age category
- Lewis Bogle — 12th in age category
1500m
- Natalia Mandula — 4th in age category
- Hannah Bogle — 6th in age category

SELKIRK SPRINT JUNIOR TRIATHLON – 15 AUGUST
Our multi-talented squad love mixing running with swimming and cycling! Well done to the following athletes:
- Akira Nagda — 4th
- Nate Patterson — 6th
- Sophia Ferarrio — 4th
- James Ferarrio— 4th

NATIONAL TRACK & FIELD – 22 AUGUST
Well done to Hannah Bogle and Simran Nagda for representing LAC.
👏 Special congratulations to Simran on making the final — excellent racing!

NATIONAL TRACK & FIELD – 23 AUGUST
1500m
Three fantastic PBs! 🔥
⭐ Alex Martin — PB
⭐ Natalia Mandula — PB
⭐ Oliver Geraghty — PB

INVERCLYDE LEISURE AQUATHLON – 23 AUGUST
Hannah Bogle, Simran Nagda and Akira Nagda took on the 400m swim + 3km run at Gourock Outdoor Swimming Pool.
Outstanding performances from all three, with particularly strong running from our LAC competitors! 👏🔥

🏅 PARKRUN MILESTONES
And finally, well done to two of our dedicated young athletes on recent milestones:
🎉 Lewis Bogle — 75 junior parkruns.
🎉 Sophia Ferarrio — 100 parkruns!! What an achievement!

A social run tonight - with the added addition of some of this years 10K pacers.
We’ll be meeting at the Cross for 6.30PM if you want to join us for a run in the sun (although you may need a headtorch) 😀

Yet another cracking turn out at track tonight - and some good consistent running of the 3 sets of 4 x 400

☀️ LAC Youth Squad – Summer Round-Up (So Far!) ☀️

What a fantastic summer it's been for our LAC Youth Squad! Here's a quick look at some of the highlights.....

🏅 Mia kicked things off by winning her age group at the Calderglen Race in June, while Maisie has continued to make huge progress and is edging ever closer to that impressive 80% age grading.

🔥 The Pursuit 5000 was a brilliant day in Stirling with a fantastic LAC turnout. Our athletes loved the opportunity to race alongside and meet elite runners—including watching our own Sam O'Neill on his impressive 5k! A special congratulations to Natalia, who was first female in her race.

🌲 At the recent National Trail Championships in Crieff, Hannah and Rose both claimed 3rd place in their age groups—a fantastic achievement and new Scottish Athletics medals 🏅

💥 There have been plenty of PBs too, with Isla and Maisie smashing new 2K PBs, Abbie combining parkrun tourism with a brand new PB and a ton more!

🏃‍♀️ The Sir Chinmoy 3 × 1 Mile Relays were another memorable evening for our LAC Youth teams. Congratulations to Amelia, Hannah and Niamh, who won the U17 Female relay, and to Isla, Alexander and James, who took won the U17 mixed relay. Our third team of Lewis, Sophia and Isla's cousin also ran brilliantly!

🌞 Our LAC Youth Squad took a trip to Helix parkrun on Sunday, it was wonderful to see so many LAC vests flying round the course before they enjoyed a sunny morning together in the park.

🏃‍♀️ 🏃‍♀️ Last night at Pollok Park Simran and Hannah joined the Stride Orienteering event for a really fun evening of map reading, clues and running. Best of all, they made tshirts that I'm sure many of the youths and coaches will recognise from their 'sunshine lollipop' song 🎵

Well done team LAC!

💙💛🖤

A fantastic night in the sun at track with a pyramid session (400M, 800M, 1200M, 1200M, 800M and a final 400M) - thanks again to the coaches! And a Birthday shout out for Lana 😀

A lovely evening for a short (but sharp) hill reps session at the Peel - well done all…great efforts all round 👏

Lovely night for a social run!

Meeting at the swing park (St.Ninians or the Water Yett car park) at 6.30PM
6-10K depending on how warm we all get….

Session in the sun at track tonight…what’s not to like 😀