Fourteen North Down athletes competed at this year’s Unevens at Finn Valley AC in Donegal on Sunday.
On a course that consisted of one fairly firm rugby pitch followed by a 1500M loop of very soft, energy sapping muck all of our youngsters were well placed with a couple of winners thrown in for good measure.
Murphy Millar was a very confident front runner in the U15 race, leading all the way to the finish from her friend, Katie Agnew from Ballymena. This follows from Murphy’s 2nd place at Kilbroney two weeks ago in the Even age groups.
Megan Briggs had a great run out to finish 11th and in the same U15 race Caitlyn Turner 24th, Rachel Gillespie 31st and Alisha Turner 46th combined to take 2nd team prize. All of the girls will be eligible to run in the Irish Uneven race at Dundalk on December 11th, Murphy and Megan in the individual event as well as the team.
Our other winner was Craig McMeechan in the U19 boys who fended off his rival, City of Derry’s Fintan Stewart, after a fast paced 3 lap affair with Craig stretching it out on the 2nd lap. The two boys finished well over a minute ahead of 3rd place. This goes with Craig’s win in the Even age groups at Kilbroney recently and this win also attracts automatic selection to the mens Ulster U20 team to compete in the Celtic cross country in Wales on 21st January.
Tara McDonough was our first runner out on Sunday and had a great result in the U13 race finishing 7th to guarantee her place at Dundalk. In the equivalent boys race Daniel Playfair was well placed in 21st, only 40 seconds behind the winner. A solid enough run from Daniel who is rapidly learning the competitive nature of the age group races.
John McNally was our only finisher in the U15 race and completed in 50th position while his sister Nia finished 23rd in the U17 race behind Jessica Scott in 14th, which gained Jessica an Irish age group place. Jakob Swann, carrying a knee injury made a brave attempt at the U15 race but the injury got the better of him and he made the wise decision to withdraw.
Thomas Patterson and John Ewing were well placed in the highly competitive boys U17 race with Thomas finishing well up in 13th and John running strongly in 39th place.
Those who finish in the top 12 in the individual races and the top 3 teams qualify for the Irish Uneven Age groups on December 11th. However, if one of the winning teams includes an individual runner in the top 12, which is inevitable, then the individual list proceeds to 13, 14 and so on. So quite a significant number of the younger athletes may be running at Dundalk.