It would seem that history was made at Thornhill College in L/Derry for the rescheduled Derry cross country on Saturday, after the frozen grounds in December.
One individual winner and both our ladies and mens teams coming away with the team wins. Club president Davie Seaton, who’s knowledge of such things is unequalled, suggests that he can’t remember this ever happening before with the club.
The unique nature of the North West/Derry XC is that the men and ladies race together over the 6k course. Craig McMeechan set his stall out from the gun as he opened up a significant gap on the rest of the field and 4 laps later at the tape, he had 1 min 19 secs to spare over 2nd place. Mark Carberry also had a strong start and finished in a credible 4th spot to create the foundation of a good team result.
Oliver Playfair stepped up from the junior race to gain some experience of open age racing and excelled as he finished in 10th place, a bright future ahead for Oliver. Young Daniel Dines also flourished in the main race as he finished in 13th and when Jamie McMeechan returned in 19th all eyes were on the 6th man in.
North Belfast had their usual strong squad in play and with their runners finishing the pressure was on Chris Downey to have a solid end to his race. He didn’t disappoint and his 27th place provided the North Down men with a 1 point win over our North Belfast rivals. Alasdair Mair ran well over the mud to complete in 38th position providing the club with valuable league points.
Clair Quigley continued her strong running as she led the ladies home in 5th place and Valerie McDonough, also in a rich vein of form followed in 11th. Lindsay Doulton, never far away from Valerie, duly obliged in 13thspot and then Helen Byers completed the counting 4 in 16th.
Glynis Boyle once again excelled as she completed in 22nd, Paula Simpson continued her excellent form in 26th and the soon to be elated ladies captain, Claire Louise Scott finished in 30th. Totally oblivious to their achievement the ladies were happily completing their cool down, complaining about their performances, when they realised they had won the team event. The ladies had the luxury of a 3 point gap to their nearest rivals.
It is no surprise that the ladies dominated the age category prizes. Clair Quigley, Claire Scott, Valerie McDonough and Glynis Boyle shared the spoils from categories 40 – 55.
The club was also well represented in the junior races. The Mair boys joined their father in competing and Harrison made his presence felt in the P4/5 race as he took 2nd place while brother Lucas finished in 14th. Older brother Seb made it a 4th place finish in the P6/7 race and Adam Downey finished 14th in the same race.
The U13 race saw James Blease finish in 5th place while Caitlyn Dickenson found herself in 10th place as she finished.
Holly Blease was our only entrant in the U15/U17 race and the young athlete made it home in 2nd place. Great performances from our young athletes.
An unexpected but successful weekend for the club in the North West which should do our league ambitions no harm at all. We did not have our strongest athletes available for this which makes the result even more pleasing. Hopefully some of our other committed athletes can make themselves available for the remaining xc league races.
