National League Finals

[Not a valid template]The National League Final took place on Sunday at Tullamore on the hottest day of the year with both North Down teams runners-up in their divisions. In Premier Division Men, the team were 11 points adrift of Clonliffe, 2nd to us in 2006 and 2007, and we were always off the pace compared to the Dublin club. Having only one specialist thrower available, combined with a warm up injury to Ben Reynolds meant several last minute alterations with a knok-on over several events but that only maximised the score achieved and didn’t affect first place. Congratulations go to Clonliffe along with good wishes in Europe. Old rivalries were renewed in Divison 1 in the Womens League where a resurgent Ballymena and Antrim won both men and womens sections.

North Down girls did it the hard way with no leeway for error and the minimum number of events contested. The problem was the entire middle distance group were on holiday or bridesmaid duty. A fall-back plan to bring in Lyndsey Freel backfired when she missed her race after warming up outside unaware the track programme was 25 minutes ahead of schedule.

[Not a valid template]With Amy Foster absent in Belgium, there could have been problems in the sprints, especially as Ballymena were flying. Step up Hannah Lewis.  With ideal conditions and her long jump going well, Hannah left her event with 3 rounds to go, trusting or hoping her 5.78m leading jump would survive (it did). There was the small matter of two races against Anna Boyle coming up not to mention the 4 x 400m (did I mention it was hot).  Hannah blazed round the 200m, winning in a legal pb of 24.51 secs, followed shortly by a close second at 100m in 12.33 sec. Game back on.

It was not a one girl show with Kim Shaw 3rd at 400m and anchoring two relays, Katie Hewitt 2nd in both hurdles, 2nds to Gemma McAnirn, Janine Munnis and Melissa Free in discus, javelin and hammer and good contributions from Laura Laughlin and Natalie Steele plus Lyndsey in the 4 x 400m relay.

[Not a valid template]Jeremy Harper broke the club record in winning the 56lb for distance and was 2nd at discus. Tom Reynolds won the 110m hurdles and was 2nd at long jump and javelin and Brendan McConville was 2nd in the pole vault and 3rd at 400m hurdles and shot. Michael Dyer was 2nd at 800m by 0.02 sec and John Saulters and Francis Marsh came up with 3rd ‘s. There were good solid performances throughout with nothing particularly going our way.

[Not a valid template]The closing 4 x 400m relays encapsulated the fortunes of the two teams. At the 2nd changeover Lyndsey’s traumatic day got worse when she approached a crowded zone in lane 2 with Hannah stranded in lane 4. A more experienced 400m runner would have elbowed her way into Lyndsey’s lane but Lyndsey was forced to move out, the ensuing melee leaving Lyndsey on the ground and Hannah with a dropped baton. It would take two super runs to get out of that one but Hannah went from last to 3rd in 57 or so secs. Kim was not going to be upstaged and went to 2nd with 200m to go and won it by a stride at the end. In the mens race Mark Patterson came up to the line a close 3rd with another runner just ahead. As Michael Dyer took off, the other incoming runner stopped dead in his path and Michael went right into him. He got back to 5th but there was no way out of that one