North Down AC athletes were out in force for one of the biggest and most competitive local 10k races, the Laganside 10k on Sunday 3rd September. The race started and finished in Ormeau park near the Ormeau Road and took in sections off the Ravenhill Road, Albertbridge Road, the Lagan towpath and the Ormeau Embankment. Craig McMeechan was the first NDAC runner to finish in 2nd place in 32:02, with brother Jamie McMeechan finishing 13th in 35:23 1 second and 1 place ahead of Francis Marsh who was 1st M55. Oliver Mayfair was first MJ in 28th place setting a new PB of 36:28. Jack Russell 37:00, David Massey 38:20 and Eamonn O’Reilly 38:25 all achieved top 50 finishes with Alan McConnell 38:33 and Luke Dobson 41:14 making it into the top 100.. Lisa Tomalin was first of the North Down ladies in 43:02 followed by Nigel Playfair 43:23, Leslie Wilkinson 43:54 and Keith Gilmore 44:10 all cracked 45 mins closely followed by Andrew Muir 45:07, Heather Beattie 49:22 and David Balmer 50:21. Lisa McMeechan was next to finish in 52:34 with Olivia Cumming 54:21, Emma Hegarty 1:00:52, Caroline Steele 1:03:24 and Pat O’Driscoll 1:05:46 rounding off excellent NDAC performances on a warm day.
The junior 1 mile race ended up being closer to 1250m, but the 3 North Down athletes involved put in superb performances too, led by the winner, Alex Downey in 3:35 with Sebastian Mair running 3:55 and Caitlyn Dickinson 4:19.
10k results: https://www.championchipireland.com/index.html#results
junior race results: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1JSuF_eny0-cK8SBwBUVXzDgf69FiDg73WsSJtpvpmVQ/edit?fbclid=IwAR0YnvwwHQx2mRL7s-MZqRI7H_hp_FjzTpTEPt_yWIHM2cxH9tfWO4LpcAY&pli=1#gid=0
[photo: Jamie & Craig McMeechan at the start line]
[photo: Craig McMeechan]