On Tuesday, the club opened the domestic track season by hosting the first of their 2014 Open Track & Field Meetings at Bangor Sportsplex. The weather held up though it inevitably got colder following a bright sunny day. Traditionally non-standard racing distancees were the order of the day for the opening meeting. Top performer on the track was the home team’s Andrew Mellon who had a treble, winning 150m in 17.30 secs, 600m in 1:23.62 min and 300m in 36.83 secs. Top field performer was City of Lisburn’s Andrew Barkley who broke the NI U18 discus record with 49.15m.
Its very early days in the track and field season but many athletes showed signs of wintering well. In addition to Andrew, North Down performances included Rachel Gibson’ 2nd pb in 4 days with 1:39.13 min at 600m, Stephen Wylie and Brian Barron who were 1st and 2nd at 3000m, Kathy Hetherington at discus, Niall McGrattan at javelin, Aaron Sexton at 150m and 300m, Holly Brannigan at 150m, Oliver Wakefield at long jump, the Reynolds Brothers, Tom and Ben. That’s only a few, there were many more.
Its impossible to run this type of event without lots of voluntary helpers from both inside and outside the club and a big Thank You to all who contributed. Thanks to all the athletes who competed, several of them cross border and others some distance away. The next Open Meeting will be Tues 13th May, though before that there will be the first of our series of Primary school age athletes on Wed 30th April. Help for that would be appreciated
Full Results: North Down 150414 2