Ardglass 10k
THREE North Down AC members made their way to Ardglass on Wednesday for the annual 10k road race. Sarah Gibson was the first of the trio to finish, taking the podium as second female in 42:46. Susan Black was seventh female in 49:14 and Pat O’Driscoll completed the run in 1:13:00.
ANI Open Meet
NORTH Down AC’s track athletes were back in action at the Athletics NI Open Meet at the Mary Peters Track on Thursday.
Craig McMeechan finished seventh in the 1500m A race in a season’s best of 3:53.06. Daniel Dines set a PB of 4:09.12 in the 1500m B race while in the C race Luke McDowell also recorded a new PB of 4:21.33. Oliver Playfair is recovering from a virus but still ran an excellent 4:27.16 in the same race.
Rachel Gibson ran 4:58.54 in the women’s 1500m and Becka Laffin was racing the 800m where she clocked 2:49.90.
Maze 10k
RICKY Jordan and Melissa Eccles tackled the Maze 10k comprising a two-lap course around the Eikon Exhibition Centre at the site of the former Maze Prison on Friday. Ricky completed the 10k in 37:39 and Melissa finished in 40:40.
Seven Sevens
DAVID McKeague was the sole mountain man to head down to the Mournes for the Seven Sevens Race, following the classic route to and from Donard Park.
This year’s race was run in an anti-clockwise direction and David and the other mountain runners summited the seven highest peaks in Northern Ireland starting with Slieve Donard then Slieve Commedagh, Slieve Bearnagh, Slieve Meelmore, Slieve Meelbeg before crossing the Ben Crom Dam to ascend Slieve Bignian and Slieve Lamagan from where they returned to the start/finish line in Donard Park in Newcastle.
The route is approximately 19 miles with more than 8600 feet of ascent. David finished in 17th place overall, and third in the M45 age group in 5:25:10.
Waterfoot to Ballycastle Trail Marathon, 03/08/24
JILL Connolly ran a trail marathon organised by the excellent event organisers, We Run Wild NI, on Saturday. Starting from the shore in Waterfoot, runners quickly found themselves climbing through Glenariff Forest Park and beyond into open countryside, forest trails, mountain views and navigating seemingly never ending leg-sapping sections of bog.
Jill was 17th overall and 2nd female, covering the course in 5:44:12.
Irish National U20 & U23 Championships
THE last major junior competition of the track and field season took place at the weekend, as the Irish U20 & U23 Championships were held in Tullamore.
Jamie Moffatt took a fantastic silver medal in the U20 100m and set an impressive PB of 10.66s, which puts him =12th in the UK U20 rankings and second in the NDAC U20 All-time list.
In his first competitive outing for NDAC, Karl Martin won bronze in the U20 triple jump with a best effort of 12.77m, while Charlie Lawden finished fifth and Andrew Brown finished sixth in the U20 javelin (600g) with throws of 48.13m and 39.45m, respectively.
Run the Trails, Mountstewart
THE Run the Trails races at Mount Stewart are hosted by our neighbours at Scrabo Strider who easily managed the logistical challenges involved in organising four separate events – a 2k, 5k, 10k and half marathon, in the same evening.
North Down AC were represented across the 5k, 10k and half with club members producing some fantastic results – first up in the 5k was Carter Rolston who finished fourth in 20:43.
Club members convincingly won the male and female 10k with Aaron McAuley taking the win in 39:15 while Clair Quigley was seventh overall in 44:47.
Luke Hamilton’s 47:01 was a new course PB. He was followed by John Harvey 51:35, Gerard Adair who also got a course PB in 52:52 and Heather Adair who joined the course PB club in 54:01. Wendy Neely 55:46, Ian McCreary 1:01:02, Sophie Hamilton 1:02:58 and Glenn Frazer 1:06:04 also ran the 10k.
In the half marathon Sarah Wilson was the first club member to finish, and second female behind Mary Slocum in 1:48:47. Paula Simpson completed the hilly trail half marathon in 2:01:52 and John Ferguson rounded off the NDAC finishers in 2:04:23.
Helen Byers, York 10k
HELEN Byers took very little time out of her holiday to race the Cork 10k on Sunday. Starting near York Racecourse the flat and fast route passed many of the historic landmarks of the city including the ancient city walls and York Minster. Helen completed the 10k in 44:09.
Sarah Gibson – Irish Masters T&F Championships
SARAH REovered quickly from her speedy 10k on the roads at Ardglass to take on three separate track distances at the Irish ~Masters Track and Field Championships at the Santry Stadium on Sunday. She came fifth in the W50 age group in the 1500m in 6:16.10, second in the W50 3000m in 12:27.73 and third in the 800m in 3:13.73.
Paula Simpson, Broughshane 5 miler
Paula Simpson joined 340 other runners in the pouring rain at the Broughshane five-mile road race on Monday. Despite the far from ideal running conditions, two days after her most recent half marathon Paula completed the five-mile race in 39:12.
