The second of Lagan Valley AC’s Fab 5 meetings took place on a sunny Thursday evening, with a great turnout from North Down Athletic Club.
In the 200m under 13 girls, Coco Smith came 3rd in her heat in a time of 34.94. In the under 17 boys’ 200m, Conor Adair was 2nd in his heat and 2nd overall in 24.22. Cameron McCracken ran in the same heat, finishing 5th in 25.01. In the under 17 girls’ 200m, Anna Moran was 4th in her heat in a time of 29.74.
In the middle-distance races, Adam Downey finished 7th in his 600m race in a time of 2.16.50. The distance then increased to 1500m, where it was a PB feast for a lot of the runners, despite the chilly and breezy conditions that had set in by the time the races started at 9pm. In the under 13 boys’1500m race, Sebastian Mair was 4th in his race in a time of 5.21.20. Unfortunately, James Blease had to pull out of this event due to a sore foot. In the under 13 girls’ 1500m, Coco Smith was 6th in her race in 5.59.56. Caitlyn Dickenson took part in the same race, finishing 9th in 6.12.53. In the under 15 boys’ 1500m, Alex Downey looked fairly controlled before he tore up the last 200m to come home in a new PB of 4.55.37. In the under 15 girls’ 1500m, Holly Blease had to make up ground in her first lap when she was boxed in over the first 100m, but still came through with a 5 second PB in 5.17.75. In the under 17 and senior women’s 1500m, Rachel Gibson ran an excellent well-paced front running race, opening up a 20 second gap on the rest of the field, to break the tape in 4.34.86. A very useful season opener time that meets the entry standard for the highly competitive British Miler Gold Meets. In the same race, Mac Eager ran a well-paced race too, to bring her PB down to 5.10.04.
Finally in the senior men’s 1500m, Ethan Isles made his debut in this event and sat around 6th in the main bunch, which was detached from the leader who was some distance in front. He then put in a fast last lap of 52 seconds to move up to 3 rd in time of 4.20.49. Also running in this race was Niall Armstrong, who was 15th in 5.09.80.
There were also a number of field events. In the under 13 girls’ long jump, Coco Smith was 12th with a jump of 3.24m. James Blease took part in the under 15 boys’ long jump, coming 7th with a jump of 3.38m. In what was a very busy evening for her, Coco Smith also took part in the under 13 girls’ high jump, finishing 5th with a height of 1m. Moreover, Holly Blease was 5th in the under 13 girls’ high jump with a height of 1.2m. Finally in the javelin, Hanna Lawden won the under 17 girls’ event with a throw of 27.29m, whilst Anna Moran was 4th with a throw of 18.95m. Charlie Lawden made it a family affair by winning the senior men’s event with a PB, by some distance, throw of 52.74m. Andrew Brown was 5th in the same event, with a throw of 31.13m.