Jumping against Sergey Kylugin on Friday clearly invigorated David Robb as he got his season back on track at the opening Mazda League round in Navan. Coming in after the field had finished he cleared 2 metres for the first time this season and missed 2.02 by a whisker. North Down won their pool, one of four in the qualifying stages of Division 1. Not by a great margin but given that the nature of the scoring system tends to compress scores, no guests were used, no non-counting events were dodged and they were in the only pool with eight teams, it was a convincing performance.
It was a luxury to be able to do single specialist events. David was the one who milked the crowd but there were also wins for Brendan McConville at 110m hurdles in 15.4 and Jeremy Harper at shot with 13.06m. Seconds went to John Saulters at 400m in 50.2 and John, Brendan, David and Philip Browne in the 4 x 100m relay. As an unpracticed quartet, they concentrated on baton retention and were 2nd to the speedy City of Derry team but were surprised to run 44.1, faster than all teams in the other pool and the Premier Division.
The 1500m was another event stronger than in the Premier Division. Michael Dyer was 3rd in 4.06.5 and other 3rd’s were Philip at 100m in 11.3 and at long jump with 6.30m, Michael McConkey at javelin with 51.98m and Paul Kirkpatrick at 56lb weight for distance with 5.56m. In the 3000m steeplechase, Jamie Stewart was 4th with 11.21.7.
Mazda scoring counts the 7 best events out of 11 and in Pool 2, Subject to scrutiny, North Down scored 53, City of Derry 49 and County Kildare 46. Abbey won a tight Pool 1, also with 53 points, Shercock 52 and County Monaghan 51. There were also another 2 pools in Cork. Round 2, covering the other events, is on 1st Aug and the top 8 teams overall meet in a final over all events at Tullamore on 15th Aug.