Wednesday night witnessed the latest version of the “Round the River” races hosted by Queens University. This year it was in darkness with the clocks not due to go forward until the weekend after the race, which seemed to heighten the atmosphere around the finish area. The evening celebrated a 2nd place finish for Craig McMeechan, 3rd place for Rio Catney in the 3k and another team win for the ladies, Rachel Gibson, Katie Moore, Jodie Smith and Fiona McQuillan despite two ladies from the ND team pulling out of the race.
The 3K race kicked things off and resulted in a 3rd place finish for Rio Catney with a pb time of 11:06. Jakob Swann also had a great run as he finished in 5th place, clocking an excellent 9:51. Amelia Tyler recorded a good 11:38 as Caitlin Turner finished in 12:05, Harris Massey in 12:13 and Bryanna Catney, 12:23. Alisha Turner wasn’t far behind timed at 12:33 and Hollie Massey hit the tape in 12:57.
In the loaded 5K race Craig McMeechan took on the front runners and as they came off the bridge for the last time he shared the lead with Neil Johnston from Springwell. With about 600M to go Craig pushed the pace up and marginally led, only for Neil to put his 1500M track speed into action as they reached the line to leave Craig trailing 3 seconds behind in a time of 15:05. Jordan Stokes finished less than a minute later in 16:03 which was 32nd followed by Francis Marsh in 53rd timed at 16:40, and winning his age category. The returning to fitness Dennis Scott was close behind in 55th recording 16:44 before Nick Irvine and Jamie McMeechan had a tight finish clocking 17:02 and 17:04.
Rachel Gibson had a great pb run of 17:13 following her success in the St Patrick’s 5k and was unlucky to finish just outside the podium. John Ewing was next in 17:43 with the ever improving Jack Bradshaw in close proximity recording 17:45. Michael Boyd came in under the 18 min mark, 17:57 in an identical chip time to our second female runner in, Katie Moore and then David Massey made sure of a sub 18 as he finished on 17:58. Philip Baillie recorded 18:18, Cameron Jenkins clocked 18:30 as he took a big chunk off his pb and Jodie Smith added to the ladies scoring with a comfortable 18:51 before young Adam Skelly substantially lowered his pb to 18:55.
Andrew Muir 19:03
Colin Walker 19:04
Alan Massey 19:13
Steven Donegan 19:21
Sean Nickell 19:35
Scott Nelson 20:13
Fiona McQuillan 20:33
Jane Stevenson 22:01
Lisa McMeechan 22:25
Michael Roberts 23:11
Andrew Taylor 23:18
Cliff McCausland 23:37
Nicola Downey 24:53
Paula Simpson 26:32
Pat O’Driscoll 30:10
