After the persistent rain of Friday Castle Park and the Valentines pitches provided a soft and mucky scene for the staging of this year’s races on Saturday. The ladies race had 22 teams participating with each team consisting of 3 runners, each running 2 x 1.3K. ND ladies secured first place in the senior category with Jodi Smith, Valerie McDonough and Sarah Lindsay taking the honours ahead of Dromore AC, despite Sarah taking a fall during the race. Interestingly this team finished 3rd overall behind two Masters teams, Beechmount and Ballydrain, which goes to prove we can get faster as we get older!
In the ladies U20 category we also had success with sisters Jessica and Anna Scott, and Nia McNally winning the age group. The first of our 4 ladies Masters teams, Fiona McQuillan, Claire Quigley and Helen Byers finished in 4th place, creditable enough bearing in mind the quality of the aforementioned Masters teams.
The men also had 2 laps of 1.3K but their teams consisted of 4 runners each. The men’s senior team of Dennis Scott, Jamie McMeechan, Craig McMeechan and James Budde were convincing winners in the senior relay category, winning by nearly two minutes from Ballydrain.
In the U20 band North Down’s Thomas Patterson, Conor Brady and Cameron Jenkins all had strong runs over the muck to win and finish 3rd overall.
Our Masters team of Darren Hamilton, David Massey, Eamon O’Reilly and Colin Walker finished 2nd, this time behind Ballydrain. Overall the club had 3 senior teams and 3 masters teams in the race with some of our members also competing for rival teams, Peninsula Triathlon Club and a select representing the aptly named Grumpy Old Men.
The junior races were well attended with primary school races where the young athletes competed over 1K, U13 boys and girls 1.6K and U15 boys and girls 2.4K. The quality of running within the primary school children was exceptional and in time hopefully the youngsters will progress within the quality training environment of North Down AC.
In the U13 race ND junior endurance squad athlete Daniel Playfair took the race on from the gun and never looked back. He won the boys race by 30 seconds over fellow ND junior athlete Euan Adams and in the girls results the junior endurance squad was also highlighted with Tara McDonough winning, and actually 2nd overall, with Hollie Massey coming in 2 seconds behind Tara and finishing 2nd. Very promising for the future and also the imminent schools events.
Adam Skelly was 3rd in the U15 race but was so unlucky on the run in when he fell, and the trailing runner passed him with no time to reclaim his position. Amelia Tyler was 2nd in the girls race closely followed by Freya Adams in 3rd which rounded off a successful U15 event for ND.
Fortunately the day was dry with sunshine albeit cold, and the ground was great for cross country running. The organisation of the event was excellent with all the marshalls, timekeepers, registers and others having very little to do after the careful planning of Clare Russell, and the course setup and organisation from Brian Smith.