Athletes from England, Scotland & Ireland participated in the NI Senior Championships (incorporating the U20 & U18 age groups) at a very wet Mary Peters track on Sunday 19th June, however, the persistently heavy drizzle didn’t dampen the standard of performances by the twenty North Down athletes who took part with medals and personal bests aplenty.
Sprints
In the sprints, Aaron Sexton stepped up to the compete against the seniors and in a tight 100m final finished a very creditable 6th with a time of 11.12s. Andrew Graham was 6th in his 100m heat in a time of 11.82s. The Senior Women’s 100m was a straight final with Saskia Greer finishing 8th in 13.43s which secured 3rd place in the U19’s. In preparation for next week’s Irish Senior Championships, Adam McComb stepped down from 400m to 200m where he was a comfortable winner in 22.10s. At 400m, two of our junior girls qualified for the Senior Women’s final where they faced stiff competition from Commonwealth Games and European Youth athletes. Holly Brannigan ran a very controlled race and was the fastest finisher down the home straight, only missing out on a medal position by a few hundredths in 4th place but setting another PB of 59.69s to take silver in the U18’s. Beth Crosbie crossed the line in 8th place with 65.43s to earn bronze in the U18’s.
Hurdles
In the sprint hurdles, NI record holder Ben Reynolds had his first competitive outing of the season in his quest to qualify for both the European Championships and Olympics and although hard pushed by Birchfield’s Jake Porter, glided over the 3’6″ barriers to take his fourth consecutive title in a time of 14.15s. The Women’s 100m hurdles was also a close race, with Clare Robinson looking both surprised and delighted to take gold in a time of 15.74s.
Middle distance
Mike Dyer lead the way in the middle distance events, continuing his recent good form the IMC meet in Dublin. In the Senior 800m, Mike went with experienced Irish international John Travers, who made a break with 300m to go and opened up a gap of around 5m, which is how it remained to the finish line where Mike took silver in 1.56.84.
Jessica Craig dropped down to contest the Senior Women’s 800m, and found herself up against Rio bound Ciara Mageean who lead a fast paced race from gun to tape. Although Jessica couldn’t quite match the leader’s pace, she was rewarded with a four second PB in time of 2.14.71. The 1500m races included all age groups from U14 up and once again the NDAC girls literally led the way. Megan Briggs & Murphy Miller dominated the U14 & U15 girls’ races respectively. Megan sat with the pack early in the race but eased to the front and made a decisive break with a lap to go while Murphy ran her usual aggressive race in what seems to be her trademark ‘lead from gun to tape’ tactic. Either way, both were impressive winners, with Megan just outside her PB in 5.02.56 & Murphy setting new PB with 4.52.37.
Thomas Patterson contested a hard fought race in the U16 1500m and finished 11th but was rewarded with a new PB of 4.43.95. In the Senior Women’s 1500m, Rachel Gibson, again fresh from the IMC meet in Dublin, also continued her run of recent good form and was a class apart with total domination of the race winning by 20 seconds and taking the title in 4.36.37.
Jumps
In the long jump there were complaints about the take-off board from several competitors, however, Ollie Wakefield jumped 6.27m which earned him a bronze in the Senior Men’s & gold in the U18s while Clare Robinson was just a fraction below her PB with a wind assisted leap of 5.29m to take bronze in the Senior Women’s. There was double gold in the triple jump when Alan Kennedy jumped a season’s best 15.25m to take gold in the Senior Men’s while Laura Saulters continued her dominance of the women’s event by setting yet another PB to take gold with a great effort of 11.80m
Throws
Understandably, many of the athletes were below their best in the throws events as the wet conditions not only made it treacherous underfoot but also made it difficult to handle the implements. Nevertheless, there were a number of good performances by North Down athletes. Leading the way was Kathy Hetherington who won gold in the Senior Women’s discus with 39.67m and silver in the shot putt with 9.63m. In the javelin, Elleana Hull won both the Senior & U20 Women’s javelin with a throw of 33.25m, while Michael Gaffney threw 48.78m to take silver in the Senior Men’s and gold in the U19s. But perhaps throw of the day came from Beth Crosbie when she increased her PB by almost 3m with a throw of 38.44m to take the gold medal in the U18 Girls’ hammer.
Live Streaming to events:
Results:
http://athleticsni.org/Results
(Photos courtesy of Kieran Carlin)