At last – a competition in glorious weather and athletes responding to team challenges. The Northern Ireland Team Trophy, incorporating the NI Relay Championships at 4 x 100m and 4 x 400m were held on Saturday at Antrim Forum with the mens’ team comprehensively retaining the Presidents Trophy and the womens team finishing a competitive 3rd. A loss of athletes due to a British League round, a Northern Irish team in Belgium and the start of the holiday season affected all teams but the North Down men were able to tap into the club depth by blooding a host of younger athletes. The numbers alone were able to swamp the opposition but a lot of talent was revealed and of course a lot of enthusiasm. In the womens section, no team had anything like a full team and with North Down, City of Lisburn and City of Derry all having different strengths. it was always going to the wire, ( in fact it went beyond to more than one recount). We shouldn’t really highlight athletes in a team context but congratulations to Glen Willis and Jessica Craig for taking their 800m pbs below 2 minutes and 2:20 min for the first time. And Callum Graham proved a points machine.
The relay teams were also successful with the club winning both mens and womens titles at 4 x 400m. In the 4 x 100m events, the mens title was shared with City of Lisburn after a big anchor run from Luke Reynolds caught the front runner and produced a tie which the photo finish could not split. The womens team finished 2nd, again to City of Lisburn.