Both U16 Boys and U16 Girls led until the death and finished second but they were excellent runs. In the vets, we were again leading until the last leg but collected 2nd and 3rd team prizes. U19 Youths were 9th, about half way, and there were also respectable races from the third vets team and the two Open Mens Teams. All in all, as good an all round day as we have had on the roads for some time.
[Not a valid template]After the opening U14 races, the relays began in earnest with the U16 Boys over one lap, North Down, St Malachys A, Raheny Shamrocks and Shimna A being the teams to watch. Robin Brown opened brilliantly with 3.12 to lead on the opening leg with Gallagher of Malachys close on 3.15. The second leg was the fastest of the race with Jordan Neil and Faulkner of Malachys sharing the fastest leg time with 3.05. That left Richard Thompson, running fit but not racing fit, in the lead with two flyers behind. Richard ran well with 3.22 but Hamilton of Malachys was ten seconds faster to take the title. Quinn of Shimna was 3rd fastest leg but had to settle for third with Robin’s 3.12 4th fastest leg.
[Not a valid template]The U16 Girls race was a carbon copy with North Down and Lagan Valley the contenders. Lauren Scott had a huge run of 3.49, destined to be 2nd fastest leg with Valley girl Carla Bowyer two seconds behind. Jessica Craig ran 3.52 to give a huge 20 second lead over Lagan Valley with Abbey another 20 seconds behind. It left Rachel Hughes, tetrathlon fit but not racing fit to face the Lagan Valley flyer Anna Rainey who ran 3.38 to win by 10 seconds with the two Raheny teams in 3rd and 4th. Lauren was 2nd fastest and Jessica 4th.
U19 boys was over two laps and had a very strong field. Jamie Stewart, probably still feeling the British Juniors on the fells was 11th with 7.22. Jordan Neil in his second outing ran 7.02 to pull us back into 8th. Richard Gordon with nowhere to go finished with 7.39 to leave us 9th out of the 16 finishing teams.
The vets race was incorporated into the Open race over three laps and was a cliffhanger between Albertville and North Down. On the first leg, Albertville led with 11.00 from Nigel Grier with Geoffrey Weir 7 seconds back. In leg 2, George Bell ran 11.04 to lead by 2 seconds. John Quiery maintained the lead with 11.42 but could not shake off a brilliant 11.40 from Willie McKay who left Davy Allen to claim it for Albertville with 11.18, Tony Wall having no answer. We were 2nd however with George and Geoffrey 2nd and 3rd fastest and a bonus was the 3rd place of our B team of Marcus McAuley, George Wilson, David Seaton and Norman Lellyett. The C team of Trevor Spencer, John Monaghan, Pat McMullan and a repeat from Geoffrey were 5th.
James Budde led the Open team and his 10.32 in the first leg was our fastest, In fact he also had 2nd fastest with 10.48 with a repeat run for the B team in the 4th leg. James, a repeat from Jamie Stewart, Ian Atkinson and John Saulters were 7th Open with 45.22 while the B team of James Agar, a repeat from Richard Gordon, Thomas Simmons and a repeat from James Budde were 8th with 47.25.