Not to be outshone by younger sister Jenna, who won the Christmas Handicap in Crawfordsburn in December, Harry Speers made it a family double by winning the Ballygilbert Handicap in style on the roads from the Sportsplex on Monday evening. The bitterly cold conditions, together with the adverse gale on the homeward half of the course, ruled against any fast times from the 31 runners. Ten seconds behind Harry was second placed Mark Reid with third going to the first lady Fiona Johnston. Fastest overall man was Les Wilkinson on 26:55 min with Mark Reid on 27:08 min with Gerry Coy and Darren McKee on 27:20 and 27:21 min. Roberta Dornan was fastest overall lady on 27:23 min with Fiona Johnston and Roma McConville on 28:23 and 30:50 min.
Despite the adverse conditions and again echoing the Christmas Handicap, Roberta would have had the ladies course record had the whole field not turned 100m too early but there will be other up-coming handicaps in better conditions.