On Saturday 16th January 2016 Greenmount Campus in Antrim hosted the annual international cross country event which also included the British Athletics XC challenge and was part of the ongoing Athletics NI XC League. North Down AC had large numbers participating ranging from primary school right through to the senior races.
Nathan Semple had an excellent 2nd place in the primary school boys with Jude Moran finishing 17th. Amelia Tyler was 7th in the u13 girls, 2nd finisher from NI, with Megan Briggs, Rachel Gibson and Tara McDonough grouping well in 17th, 18th and 20th. North Down were 4th team in this category. Adam Skelly came 36th in the u13 boys. Murphy Millar was 8th in the u15 girls and together with the Jessica and Anna Scott won a bronze team medal. In the u15 boys Jakob Swann – 22nd, Thomas Patterson – 34th, Stefan Yathindran – 47th, John McNally – 51st, Jake Rushby – 65th and James McCaughey – 67th combined to finish 5th team overall.
In the boys and girls U17 races we had one representative in each. Nia McNally finishing 16th in the girls and Craig McMeechan finishing 2nd, and 1st Ulster, in the boys despite a fall on the last lap.
In the senior races the ladies of North Down once again produced the goods to finish in 2nd place, no doubt cementing their position within the ANI xc league. The girls turned out in force with 13 taking to the start line to run 3 laps of the demanding course. Rachel Gibson was first team member in 19th, Jodie Smith not far behind in 22nd and Valerie McDonough making up the team counters in 34th. The remaining runners, Joanne Moran, Cara Hamilton, Helen Wyse, Stacey Beggs, Helen Irivine, Lisa McMeechan, Heidi Rodgers, Clare Russell, Marie Devine and Paula Simpson completed the ND team and contributed to the overall points.
The final race of the day was the senior men which, like the ladies, featured runners from Bahrain, Uganda and Kenya and teams from the rest of the UK. Francis Marsh 36th was first home for North Down followed by Ben Caughers 44th, Jamie McMeechan 52nd. Mark Weir, Craig McDermid, Colin Walker, David McMeechan, Eamon O’Reilly, Frank Rea, Gerry O’Boyle, Alan Massey, Robert Martin, Paul Galloway and Trevor Patterson also contributed to the team effort.
Well done to all who tackled the tough course at Greenmount and to the members of NDAC who were assisting with the event.
Full results can be found here : http://www.nirunning.co.uk/Results2016-AntrimInternationalXC.xls
