North West XC Championships

Congratulations and well done to the 13 club athletes who went to Derry pre Christmas for the North West XC Championships but unfortunately there were not enough of them. Both teams lost position in the League standings, the men dropping out of the podium positions and the women out of first (though only by a point). The men were 5^th in the 4-to-count league race but did finish a team in the 6-to-count North West Championships. The girls were 3^rd in  the 3-to-count league race behind good Omagh and City of Derry teams and it was the same order in the 4-to-count North West.

Male, female and masters all ran in the same 6K race over 3 laps of good ground.  Declan Reed of City of Derry and Gladys Ganiel O’Neil the overall winners Michael Dyer was best for North Down in 13^th  in 19:56 with Francis Marsh, who was 1^st M45, Dennis Scott and Nick Irvine were the scorers thogh league points only go down to 4^th. John McGarvey, Michael Roberts and Norman Lellyett completed the team. Jessica Craig led the club girls with 4^th in 22:59 and was backed by Stephanie Hambling, Debbie Matchett and Melissa Eccles.

In the U17s, who ran 2 laps of 2k (4k total) with the open race, Katie Moore came 2nd, with Corey Brown ahead in the boys race. Corey was 12th in 16:06 and Katie in 2nd ran 16:09 min.

With an odd number of male and an even number of females  finishing, the scoring system was unkind when the reverse is needed to maximise bonus  points. The next league round is the Senior Championships at Greenmount in January and the league finishes in February with the Civil Service Championshops at Stormont.

Results link

North Down Results