North Down ran an open track meeting on Tuesday evening at the Sportsplex as a prelude to the upcoming season. Though windy (surprise!), the mainly non-standard events provided a gentle introduction and though the majority of athletes were local, there was an encouraging response from other clubs. There were 4 heats in both 150m and 300m and the 3000m can always be relied upon to attract a good field. Kelly McNeice stood out in the mixed event with an outdoor pb of 9:32.76m, ahead of most of the men, Mark Wright being overall winner. For North Down AC, Matthew Martin started his season well with 54.56m with the 800g javelin (club M20 record) and Alex Catherwood jumped well in difficult conditions with 1.50m. Kathy Hetherington and Beth Wilson also had good results at discus However top plaudits go to Oliver Wakefield who, in his first ever outing and ignoring age guidelines, jumped 1.40m high and 4.85m long to reach the higher echelons of the UK U13 Power of Ten rankings
The response was sufficiently encouraging for another meeting to be scheduled foe another meeting to be scheduled on Tuesday 17th May.