North Down AC were well represented at the Mathieson Cup XC races hosted by Mallusk Harriers at a cold, windswept Belfast Playing Fields on Sunday 14th January.
First up were the primary school 800m races where Isla McQuillan represented NDAC in the girls’ race and Harrison Mair was 9th and Adam Downey 14th in the boys’ event.
In the 2k U13 races Carter Rolston showed no fatigue from the Hawtin Shield on Saturday to win with Sebastian Mair joining him on the podium in 2nd. In the girls’ race Coco Smith was 5th, Sophie Rankin 6th, Caitlyn Dickenson 9th and Lara Cheatley 11th.
The U15 races had 3 club runners; Alex Downey in 10th, James Blease 28th and Freya Lowry finishing 8th girl.
At U17 Chris Belshaw was 6th and Holly Blease was 9th girl followed by Becka Laffin 11th.
Sarah Grant was the first of the club’s finishers in the senior women’s 6k race in 7th place overall. Next finisher was Fiona McQuillan taking 3rd F40 place. Clair Quigley, Sarah Gibson, Helen Byers, Lindsay Doulton, Sarah Connolly, Claire Scott, Emma Fox, Jill Aiken, Heather Beattie, Marion Beattie, Wendy Neely, Lisa McMeechan, Kim McCourt, Hannah Dunne and Nicola Ingram made up the rest of the strong ladies team.
In the male veteran race alongside the women’s race Terry Eakin was 1st M70 and Pat O’Driscoll was 1st M75.
Oliver Playfair stepped up to the 8k senior men’s race and the 16 year old was the club’s first finisher in 13th place overall in 27:34 just one second in front of Jamie McMeechan. Finn Johnson was next to finish ahead of Chris Moran taking 3rd M45. David McKeague, Andy Lowry, Aaron McAuley, Jason McMinn, Alan McConnell, Alasdair Mair, David Massey, Mitchell Brown and Tim Cooke were joined by Luke Hamilton making his senior XC debut after another speedy run at the Hawtin Shield the previous day.
https://athleticsni.org/Results
photo credits include Steven Donegan Photography – there are many more fantastic images on the club members’ FB page
