SECRETARY’S REPORT 2004
As we celebrate 30 years of North Down Athletic Club I am pleased to report that the Club has
had its most outstanding year to date and has won all the major Track and Field
competitions in athletics in 2004 and we are without a doubt the most
successful athletic club in Northern Ireland.
In 2004 we introduced a new promotion the New Year Cross Country Relays held on
4 January in Castle Park. This was well
received and supported and will become a regular fixture. Our U14 boys were 1st
team, the U16 girls were 3rd, the veterans’ A
team were 2nd and the Open A team were 2nd. The 2005 event will be held on 15 January.
Francis Marsh became NI Junior Champion
on 17 January in Castle Park,
with the open team finishing 3rd(Marsh, Budde, Dyer, Neil, Stewart and Saulters. The U20 ladies Vicky Clegg, Nicola McCaughey,
Claire Dodds and Kerry Iveston
were 1st team. The Veteran
ladies team Roma McConville, Lynne Wilson, Fiona Mullan and Pauline Mossey took
bronze.
Jordan Neil and Michael Dyer were selected for the Celtic International in Ayr on
Saturday 24 January. Jordan finished 39th
(4TH NI U17) and Michael finished 47th U23).
At the Roe
Valley Trail Race on 7 February Jamie Stewart was 1st Junior
and Kerry Iveston 2nd Junior Lady.
On the same day John Saulters
competed at the Irish Universities Indoor Championships at Nenagh and was 3rd in the 400m Semi-final and 5th
in the 800m Semi-final.
19 of our athletes qualified from their districts
for the Ulster Schools Cross Country
Championships held at Mallusk on February 18.Katie Hewitt was 9th,
Jessica Craig 11th and Hannah Lewis 20th in the Junior
Girls. Mark Patterson was 28th,
Thomas Simpson 54th and Michael Patterson 69th in the
Junior Boys. Kerry Iveston
was 30th and Rachel Hughes 44th in the Intermediate
Girls. Richard Thompson was 58th and Harry Miller 59th in
the Intermediate Boys. Vicky Clegg was 5th
and the first home in Glenola’s winning team in the
Senior Girls’ race. Nicola McCaughey was
16th, Claire Dodds 18th and
Jill Nesbitt 21st. James
Stewart was 14th in the Senior Boys Race.
The Civil
Service Cross Country was held at Stormont on
28 February. Jessica won the U15 Girls,
Thomas Simpson was 3rd U15 Boys, Kerry Iveston
2nd U17 Girls, Vicky Clegg 2nd Open ladies and Brian
Smith won the 060 Category.
At the Irish
Schools at Ballyclare on March 13 Katie
finished 37th and Hannah 49th Junior Girls. Vicky Clegg finished 20th, Claire Dodds 39th and Jill Nesbitt 41st
Senior Girls.
Our Annual
Club Handicap and Cross Country Prizes was held
around the Crawfordsburn Trail on Saturday 13
April. Mark Patterson won the Smith Handicap Shield. Other age group awards were made to Mark
Patterson U13, Jordan Neil U15, Michael Dyer U20, Francis Marsh Open, Tony Wall
U40, George Bell O50, Jessica Craig U15, Kerry Iveston
U17, Vicky Clegg Open Women.
The Ulster
Schools Track and Field Championships were held on 20 May (MPT) and 21
May (Bangor). 60 of our athletes had qualified.
There were wins for David Keys U15 Hamm, Jordan Neil U17 3,000m, Aaron
Sterling U17 Hamm, Peter Abernethy U17 PV, Kiki Malomo-Paris U15 100m, Kim Shaw U15 200m, Amy Foster U17
100m, & 200m, Erin Mullan 80MH, Caroline Oakes
U17 Dis, Stacey Mullan
Senior 80MH, David Keys U15 Dis, Peter Glass U17
100MH & Jav, Scott McCauley U17 TJ, Jeremy Harper
(Senior) Dis & Shot, Luke Reynolds (Senior)
110MH, David Robb HJ (Senior).
23 North Down Athletes
competed in the Irish Schools Finals on 5 June. There were wins for
Scott McCauley U17 TJ, Jeremy Harper Discus & Shot, Luke Reynolds 110mh,
Peter Glass 110MH & Jav, Aaron Sterling Hammer,
David Keys Hammer & Discus, Stacey Mullan 100mh.
North Down
Sports Advisory Sports Awards were held at Clandeboye Golf Club on 30 May.
Claire Scarth received an Award of Merit from guest
of honour Wayne McCullough.
The NI
Relay Championships were held at Bangor on 26 June. Our athletes were in fine form. There were wins for the U13 Girls in the 4 x
100m & 4 x 200m (Kathryn Colwell,
Natasha Paxton, Jennifer Hatch, Ali Gordon), U15 Girls 4 x 100m & 200m (Kim
Shaw, Harriett Hayhurst, Katie Hewitt, Hannah Lewis),
The Primary
School Sessions were held on Monday evenings through May and June and
were very supported with over 80 athletes attending aged 7 to 11. Heather Beattie played a major part in the
organisation of these sessions and she continued working with the P7 children
on Monday evenings throughout the summer.
The Bank of
Ireland Corporate Services continues to support our Young Athletes
meeting held this year on a very fine evening on 10 August. The competition was good and competitors and
officials enjoyed the friendly atmosphere of the evening. Our athletes won several events with Steven
Colwell U13, Andrew Bradley U15, Scott McAuley U18,
Hannah Lewis U15 and Kim Shaw U18, winning the overall age group prizes.
The Boys’ team won the Northern Ireland Young Athletes Final for the third year in
succession and travelled to Birmingham to compete in the UK Final. The Girls’
team were a very commendable second, with some outstanding performances. They intend to win the girls’ section in
2005. Peter Glass was awarded the Jimmy
Murray Trophy for the most outstanding performance of the League in the
HJ. We won 9 medals in the Final.
Young Athletes League
records are
held by Kathryn Colwell U13 100M & 150M, Danielle Oliver U13 HJ, Jennifer
Kelso U13 LJ, Nichola McCaughey U17 PV, 200M relay
team Natasha Paxton, Jennifer Hatch, Ali Gordon and Kathryn Colwell, U15 200M
Relay Kim Shaw, Hannah Lewis, Kiki Malomo-Paris & Katie Hewitt. Tom Reynolds U13 75MH, Kerrin Young U15 400m, Peter Abernethy U15 PV, Jonathan Kingsberry U15 Hammer, Darragh
Murphy U17 HJ, Michael McConkey U17 PV, Aaron
Sterling U17 Hammer.
The Senior Mens’ team won
the Team Trophy and the Golden 4 League for the fourth year in succession. We entered the Mazda League of
Ireland and also won this by a strong margin and have been promoted to the
Premier League next year.
The Senior Ladies team won the Golden 4 League for the 2nd
year in succession. We intend to enter a
ladies team next year in the Mazda League.
We finished the Track and Field season with our club championships in which 51
athletes competed on 31 August and had a very enjoyable Barbeque, prize evening
and quiz on 10 September with 60 members, parents and friends attending.
We are grateful to Cleaver Fulton Rankin for their continued support of the Crawfordsburn 5K Trail Race held on 18 September.
This has become a very popular fixture with over 100 competitors
enjoying the scenery of Crawfordsburn Country Park
and the Coastal path.
The North Down Special Olympics Club has been meeting each Tuesday evening since September. We have over 30 athletes training regularly. Geoffrey, Danielle, Chris Lockhart and myself have been coaching.
Some the athletes will ready to be integrated into our club training
sessions. We would ask other coaches to
consider assisting with these very worthwhile sessions.
The Bangor
Road Races were held on Saturday 2 October again supported by Muir & Addy. This was a good event incorporating
children’s races. We are ever grateful to the PSNI for providing traffic
assistance with this event. Robin Brown was 1st U15 & Jordan
Neil 1st U18.
Our athletes are also making their mark on the
Cross-country scene. At the Even Age Group Cross-Country Championships
our U16 girls Jessica Craig, Lauren Scott, Katie Hewitt and Rachel Hughes were
1st team and first County team also.
Jessica was 1st and Lauren 2nd at the Pegasus
Cross-Country promotion.
11 of our athletes have been ranked in the GB ranking lists. Kathryn Colwell U13
4th 100m, 200m, Natasha Paxton 100m & 200m, Kim Shaw 2ND
TJ, Amy Foster U20 100m & 200m, Caroline Oakes Javelin, Peter Wickens U15 Shot & Discus, David Keys U17 Hammer &
Discus, Peter Glass U17 Shot, HJ, Jav, 100mH &
800m, David Robb HJ, Jeremy Harper Dis & Shot,
Brendan McConville Decathlon 4th, PV &
HJ. North Down has more athletes ranked
in GB than any other club in NI.
We are grateful for the assistance we receive from
the Sportsplex staff, the Council’s Sports
Development Staff Jill Constable and Sarah Kearney and Director Stephen Reid
who are always supportive of our club and events.
Our officials
continue to work hard within the Federation on Committees. Barry has been re-elected as YAL Chairman,
with Rodney Brown as Treasurer. Tony
Wall has been re-elected as Hon Assistant Secretary, NIAF. Geoffrey has been
elected as Chairman of the North Down Special Olympics
Club, re-elected as Chairman of NDSAC and as Assistant Treasurer of NIAF and
David Seaton continues as Cross-Country Chairman & NDSAC Executive Council
member.
At the beginning of the year we introduced our
web-site www.northdownac.org. We are grateful to Francis Marsh for his input into getting the site up and running
and Barry Scarth
for updating the site each week with various results, ranking lists and
news items, sometimes working into the wee small hours. A web site is only as good as those who keep
it updated. My task with writing this
report has been helped by the web-site as it has not been necessary for me to
go into as many details as in previous years as all the weekly results can be
obtained from the web.
Michael Moffitt continues as our PRO
writing articles in the Spectator each week.
We are grateful to Mike for keeping the club’s name to the fore within
the community.
Orders for our club tracksuit should be with us in the New Year. It is hoped that members will enjoy wearing
their tracksuit with pride.
What can I say about our coaches whose commitment to our athletes is tireless and never ending. I think that
the excellent performances speak for themselves.
Finally I would like to thank the outgoing
committee for their commitment to North Down AC and
Pat our Chairman for his support throughout the last year.
Gillian Weir
Honorary Secretary
8 December 2004
NI Champion 14.85m
AAI Champion
Represented Ireland in the Europa
Cup in Iceland (5th) TJ,
Silver medal winner at
Senior Championships at TJ 14.00M & LJ 6.80M.
Best 2.00m in Mazda League Round 1
1ST Scottish U20 Championship
1ST Ulster Schools Championship
Represented NI
Amy Foster 100m &
200m
1988 Age Group champion 100m & 200m
Schools Interprovincial 2nd
100m & 200m
Celtic International Selection
Scottish Age Group Champion 100m U17 & 2nd
in 200m
Schools Interprovincial
Champion Jav
AAI U17 Champion Javelin
Schools International team at Chelmsford
Celtic International Selection
1988 Age Group Champion 110MH, Discus, 2ND
Javelin
Winner of the Jimmy Murray
Trophy YAL for the most outstanding performance of the League in the HJ.
Schools Interprovincial
Champion 110MH
AAI U17 Champion 100MH & Jav
Captain of Schools International team at Chelmsford
Celtic International Selection, 1st
100mh
Irish Schools Champion Jav
& 100mh
NI & Irish Schools Multi Event Champion
(Intermediate)
1985 Age Group Champion Shot & Discus
Shot and Discus in the
Irish Schools championships. His
performance in the Discus (48.88m) has gained him entrance to SCNI.
Winner of the prestigious
“Star of Co Down” Award for his performances during 2003.
AAI U23 Champion at Discus, 2nd in Shot
Irish Schools Champion Shot & Discus
1987 Age Group Champion
Richard Lockhart - Throws
1986 Age Group Champion Hammer, 2nd
Shot,
Schools Interprovincial 2ND
Hammer
AAI Champion Hammer & Discus
Schools International team at Chelmsford
Celtic International Selection, 1st
Discus
Broke U15 Irish Schools Hammer record
Irish Schools Champion Hammer & Discus
1989 Age Group Champion 1,500m
Schools Interprovincial 2nd
3,000m
AAI Champion 3,000m
1990 Age Group Champion Hamm & Dis
Kathryn Colwell - Sprints
1991 Age Group Champion 100m
Mark Atkinson - Sprints
1990 Age Group Champion 100m & 200m
AAI U15 champion 100m & 200m
1990 Age Group Champion 200m
2nd U15 Pentalthon
1st U15 Pentathlon
NI Schools Multi event champion U15
1991 Age Group Champion 80m
Europa Cup GB Selection 1st
GB Athlete
Scored 7310 points in German Combined event
championships (Commonwealth Games Standard)
Regular GB Senior representation
AAI U17 Champion
Schools International team at Chelmsford
NI U17Octathlon champion
Irish Schools Champion
AAI U17 110MH
Irish Schools Champion 100mh