The British Isles Combined Events Cup was held at Mary Peters Track and showed the attritional nature of combined events, decathlon in particular. The cold windy weather on Saturday did not help. Though the other nations all had athletes drop out, Northern Ireland were the hardest hit with Paul Tohill the only man left standing after 10 events. However Paul with 6962 points ended as the overall leader following on from Brendan McConville’s who was also the winner in the last two times the event has been held but is no longer eligible. Mandy Gault also had a medal as 3rd Under 23 in the heptathlon while the guesting Vicky Kennedy showed what a powerful all rounder she is with 5th overall, giving a glimpse of what might have been had her career developed differently.
With Tom Reynolds injured and Peter Glass unavailable, North Down unusually had nobody in the mens team though Claire was Team Manager. They did have a representative in the womens team in Katie Hewitt in the U17 section. Katie at 15 must have been the youngest athlete present and was 5th U17 with 3437 points. Her results were 80m hurdles 12.90 (685), high jump 1.36 (470), shot 7.12 (343), 200m 27.87 (641), long jump 4.76 (4.95), javelin 16.50 (224), 800m 2:39.54 (578). It was a huge milestone that Northern Ireland could for the first time field a full womens team in this event and a young and enthusiastic one at that.