Country Parks Challenge

Simon Seaton in 9th and the youthful pair of Brian Barron and Jordan Stokes in 11th and 13th featured in the last event of the North Down Country Parks Challenge Series, finishing up with fine performances and a good team effort at the Redburn Forest 4-mile Challenge on Wednesday. Kerry Iveston and Stephanie Hambling were 3rd and 4th women retaining their overall lead  Abbey athletes Paul Pollock and Turlough Donnelly were first and second across the line in 26.39 and 27.22 min, respectively, and also wound up as first and second in the overall series. Third and fourth place went to Des Woods of Mourne Runners and Paul Blaney of North Belfast Harriers.

North Down claimed the top 3 places in the women”s cumulative section with Kerry Iveston emerging top with 85.29. Second and third went to Stephanie Hambling and Jill Dowie respectively.  The winners of the series were determined according to the lowest cumulative time in the three events at Scrabo, Crawfordsburn and Redburn. Paul Pollock was well ahead of the field with victories in all three races and an overall time of 65.51 min. Turlough Donnelly took second in dramatic style, making up a 26-second deficit from seasoned mountain runner Paul Blaney in the Redburn race. His final time of 68.54 was just one second quicker than Paul”s. Brian Barron was by far the most consistent North Down runner with times at Crawfordsburn and Redburn that stacked up well against senior opposition. He did the shorter Junior race at Scrabo which was a selection race but would appear to have done well in the longer race.

NDAC Redburn Results

Cumulative