[Not a valid template]The Senior Championships, including under 18 to 20 age groups, were held at Antrim on the Bank Holiday Monday 4th June, bringing them into the same weekend as the Home Nations but avoiding a clash with the Irish Schools. Senior gold medallists from the club were Alan Kennedy, Matthew Martin, Beth Wilson and Aimee McNeilly with silver going to Adam McComb, Hannah Lewis and Kathy Hetherington and bronze to Callum Graham. The race of the day though was the mens 400m where Adam may have lost out but stunned the field to slice nearly 2 seconds off his pb and become the second young North Down athlete to go below 50 secs in recent weeks.
The 400m final came down to a head to head with the two semi final winners, Adam and John Houston of Ballymena who went hammer and tongs and drove each other to big pbs, 49.48 sec for Adam and 48.96 for Houston. Beth and Kathy went cat and mouse in the discus with the lead alternating until Beth nailed it in the last round with 38.92m against Kathy’s 37.44. Alan Kennedy by-passed the triple jump to concentrate on long jump which he won with 7.02m with Callum 3rd with 6.47m. Matthew Martin won the javelin in his first appearance of the season with 58.14m Aimee McNeilly won the 100m hurdles easily in 15.37 secs. Hannah struggled with her take off in her long jump, missing the board by a distance, and was well down on her current form with 5.54 m to go 2nd to Linzi Herron.
Rachel Gibson was 6th in the 800m in 2:20.55 min in a race that has struggled for entrants in recent years but this time produced a good, competitive field. Gareth Lyness overcame some recent hurdle problems in the 400mH but fell though he got back and finished 5th in 67.52 sec and was 2nd U19. At U18 level Clare Robinson won the 100m hurdles at her height in 16.14 sec and was 2nd in long jump with 4.81m while Matthew Stockton won the javelin with 49.53m and was 2nd in the discus with 28.26m.