The decathlete / sprinter training group totally dominated the Club Christmas Handicap on Saturday morning over the Crawfordsburn Trail with a win for Brendan McConville closely followed by Adam McComb and Kenny Elliott. No fluke either – the whole group was in Ward Park in the afternoon for a second strenuous session of bounding and plyometrics. The ladies race was very tight with Julie Balmer just ahead of Jessica Craig, Rachel Gibson, Abbey Taylor and Lindsay Doulton. The fastest man of the day was Francis Marsh with an actual net time of 18:02 min with James Budde 18:35. while Jessica was the fastest girl in 20:36 min net with Stephanie Hambling 22:22 and Julie and Rachel 22:33 and 22:39. There were 31 finishers with the conditions very cold and when off the path muddy.
Ken and Lynne Hawtin presented the shield along with Club Chairman Roy Kerr who thanked the scorers and marshals including the absent Norman Lellyett who had laid out the course the previous evening. Roy subsequently made the draw for the club places in the 2012 London Marathon. The places go to Pat O’Driscoll and Michael Jenkins with the first reserve Nick Arkensparr.