The Armagh International Road races around the Mall in Armagh produce some of the fastest road times in the UK, Ireland and Europe and always attract a top quality field of runners. The cold and windy winter evening didn’t slow the junior athletes in the schools races where Ethan Constable finished 7th in the 2010/11 boys’ race and Sophie Rankin finished 4th in the 2012/13 girls’ event.
[Sophie Rankin]
Two North Down AC women raced in the 3k race where the standard of international competition was highlighted by Rachel Gibson’s 10:38 securing 95th place and Sarah Gibson ran 12:29.
Six of North Down AC’s men raced in the mens’ 3k with Finn Johnston securing 33rd place in 9:21. Josh McDowell 9:44, Luke McDowell 9:50 and Nick Irvine 9:51 al secured sub-10 minute finish times, closely followed by Francis Marsh 10:09 and Alan McConnell 10:42.
9 International teams competed in the headline 5k race with the top 3 runners from each team scoring points towards team rankings. The standard of competition was such that the winner, Topi Raitanen of Finland 13:49 was one of 17 men to run under 14 minutes and 130 men ran sub-15 minute times. North Down AC’s Craig McMeechan who was selected last week to run for the NI & Ulster team finished in 54th place in 14:26 helping NI & Ulster to 6th place behind Sweden, Finland, Scotland, England and Wales. Poland, Belgium and Germany made up the rest of the international team results.
https://myrunresults.com/events/armagh_international_road_race_5k_2024/4988/results