The third race of this years’ cross country league was staged at the Sixmilewater Park, Ballyclare on Saturday. With fine weather and firm underfoot conditions it was a great day for competing.
For the third week in a row Rachel Gibson finished 2nd, losing out to a different winner on each occasion. Jodie Smith ably supported Rachel with a strong 5th placing and Sarah Lindsay returned in 14th. Valerie McDonough followed in 28th before Joanne Moran 39th and Sarah Benton 42nd. Helen Byers, fresh from an earlier parkrun and in preparation for the Decathlon 10k the next day, was next in 45th. Another great outing from the ND girls which won’t do their league standing any harm at all.
In the same race the Vet 60+ men included Davie Seaton finishing in 13th and Pat O’Driscoll completed in 24th place.
Mark Weir led the men home in 44th with David Massey coming in a little over a minute later in 60th. Eamonn O’Reilly was next in 84th and then Frankie Rea, Terry Eakin and Brian Geddis finished within seconds of each other in and around the 92nd mark after assisting each other around the course. Alan Massey was excluded from this trio and had to make do with 95th followed by Colin Walker who was the 100th runner to finish.
Another great turnout of athletes from the club with this marking the halfway mark in the pre Christmas batch of races in the league.