Championship Day in Lurgan Park

[Not a valid template]For the first time since the nineties, Championship cross country returned to Lurgan Park on Saturday. Nostalgia buffs will recall when the Senior Championships were held there and the course used to seem firm oand fast. Not this time for the Mens’ Junior and Masters Championships and the Ladies’ Junior, Intermediate and Masters. Falling rain plus a rapid thaw had turned the course into a quagmire but with an impressive entry of 500 plus athletes and competition to match, a good days racing was to follow.

Results download

Mens Masters

Held over 8K, the first race was a duel between pre-race favourite Dave Morwood of Annadale ans Ciaran Doherty of Letterkenny with Morwood the winner in  28:18 min and North Belfast winning the teams. For North Down, Francis Marsh had a good run and was  8^th on 30 min dead, placing 2^nd M45. Gerry Coy was 8^th M50 and Michael Roberts 4^th M60 and the team was completed by Simon Robinson and Michael Jenkins.

North Down

 

Junior/Intermediate and Masters Women

In a complicated affair over 4K, the women all ran together in separate team races. A under-strength North Down squad  had trouble finding a competitive combination for any Championship and Valerie McDonough and Marie Devine doubled as both Intermediates and Masters.  Rachel Gibson and Melissa Eccles were the best in the Intermediate section, Rachel, from now on a Senior, finishing in 7t overall and just outside the Intermediate medals.  In the Masters, Stephanie Hambling was 3^rd F40, Ali Robinson was 6^th F35, Valerie 8^th F40 and Marie 11^th F45.

The race also included the 65 plus race for me, won by Brian Smith from David Seaton and North Down top team . As the field is small and North Down in practice unchallenged, it is easy to ignore this race but the quality should not be ignored. It is only a year or so that North Down were British Champions at this age group.

Intermediate Ladies

Masters Ladies

Men 65 and Over

 

Mens, Junior Championship

Definitely not Junior in age, the blue riband 8K race looked very open and so it was except for first place. East Down’s Brendan Teer  jumped away at the start and pulled away to win by close to 3 minutes. The rest was very competitive, especially the 6 yo count team race, a North West affair, narrowly won by City of Derry from Finn Valley and Foyle Valley, only 6 points between them all.  All the 10 North Down men ran well in the clinging mud,  led by Michael Dyer in 39:15 and the returning Stuart Donald in 40:09.

Special mention should be made of  Dennis Scott who ran after a family bereavement, of Mark Weir who gave up his chances as a Master, of Stephen Wylie who ran the difficult course in trainers and particularly of the two youngsters Mark Angus and Corey Brown who tackled the gruelling conditions  with flying colours.

Mens’ Junior Championship