North Down’s Senior Mens Team of Michael Dyer, Jamie Stewart, Francis Marsh and James Budde finished 8th team of the 20 teams that started the Road Relay Championships of Ireland held in Raheny, Dublin on Sunday 4th April.
The race used a flat loop of around 1 mile with legs of 2 laps, 1 lap, 3 laps and 2 laps in that order with times somewhat affected by strong winds.
19-year-old 800m specialist Michael Dyer led the North Down team off and was tucked in the back of the leading group of runners nearing the end of the fast first lap. This group split up soon after, but Michael held on well to his position to handover in 10th place. 17-year-old Jamie Stewart took over on the shortest (1 lap) leg and, although dropping a few places to 13th, managed to keep the team in close contention with several teams just in front.
“Old man” Marsh treated the Southern boys to his usual “dirty” tactics of drafting in to the wind to pull the team up 6 places to 7th and just behind the 6th team, Raheny ?B?. James Budde took over the anchor leg and at mid-leg stage was part of a threesome (Clonliffe ?B? and Raheny ?B?) battling for 6th place. Clonliffe ?B? pulled away whilst 7th spot was left to a fierce home straight sprint between James and the Raheny ?B leg runner with Raheny just holding on (despite the official 4 second time difference).
The team?s 8th placing of the 17 finishing teams (and in front of 4 ?A? teams) is a positive development for the Senior Men?s team and one we hope to build on and improve.