North Down Open No 2, the 2nd track meeting of the season took place on Tuesday evening, 12th May, at the Sportsplex in sunny but gusty conditions. No under-distance races this time- the season is in full swing. There were not as many competitors this time though there was still a good geographical spread. This usually happens in the week of the Ulster Schools and sprinters were probably deterred by the likely prospect of high wind readings. That put the spotlight on the Senior endurance events where North Down athletes were in good form. Francis Marsh won the mens 3000m, Craig McMeechan won the faster mens 800m and Rachel Gibson won the ladies 800m. It was Murphy Miller however who upstaged them all with 2nd in the ladies 800m in 2:19.37 min, smashing Sandra Gawley’s club U15 record of 2:21.00, set in the early nineties at MPT in one of Les Jones’s famous spectaculars.
North Down did lose one record when Andrew Barkley (City of Lisburn) broke Jeremy Harper’s 11 year old Northern Ireland U20 discus record with 49.62m adding more than a metre to the record.