NORTH Down Athletic Club’s Craig McMeechan followed up his win at the Seaton Classic 10k with an emphatic victory at the Comber Cup.
Conditions were dry and firm for the the cross-country fixture at Billy Neill Playing Fields last Sunday, but the course was still a challenging mix of hills and sharp turns to test the fitness and cornering skills of runners.
A fortnight on from his victory in Bangor, McMeechan, pulled away from the pack near halfway to finish 23 seconds clear in the senior men’s race in 24:33. Kyle McLellan was next home for the North Down club in 15th (26:35), with Jamie McMeechan 40th (28:04) and Aaron Beggs 42nd (28:13) making up the Comber Cup scoring four.
Josh McDowell was North Down’s next, finishing fast in 52nd (28:51), with John Ewing continuing his comeback trail well to place 65th (29:59). Luke Dobson was having a cracking race up to 6.5k but had to pull out with a tweaked hamstring.
In the women’s 5.5k race, Sarah Grant ran above her expectations to finish fifth (20:18), with Katie Moore shaking off a recent cold to finish strongly in seventh (20:54). North Down athletes were well represented amongst the age group winners with June McMinn the first F65 and Simon Boyle the second M60 while Terry Eakin pipped Pat O’Driscoll for the top M75 spot and John Adgey was first M80.
The U14/16/18s boys and girls combined race start in such a narrow stretch was a bit of a chaotic stampede start, where unfortunately Coco Smith suffered a fall as many elbowed their way through. Carter Rolston (9:46) judged his effort well to take the U14 boys win, with Seb Mair (10:06) getting a podium finish in third.
There was a great squad of four finishing the U16 girls, led home by Maia Johnston (11:39) in fourth, Freya Lowry (12:30) seventh, Abbie Small (12:48) ninth and Caitlyn Dickenson (13:48) 12th suffering from an upset stomach.
In the U16 boys Ethan Constable (9:28) secured another podium finish in third, with John Kinney (11:18) finishing fast in 14th to stay ahead of a trio of Willowfield runners.
