Friday night saw the first running of the Scrabo Striders organised Newtownards airport races with 17 North Down athletes toeing the line in the two races.
In the 5k race young Nathan Semple transformed his park run abilities onto the flat runway and was first ND man home in 12th place, 18:53. Steven Donegan was one minute behind in 19:54 as he finished in 19th and Glenn Frazer made it home in 28:02. Gemma Caughers returned to racing with a time of 31:32 as Alison Crozier completed in 32:33.
While the course was naturally flat the wind played it’s part in tricking up the course and the 10k runners had twice as much of the elements to take on board. Keith Gilmore recorded 43:32 to take 31st place ahead of John Ferguson in 47:09. Michael Taylor wasn’t far behind as he clocked 47:32 and Andrew Muir ran out the London marathon stiffness with a 48:02 time. Another distance specialist, Michael Stevenson, made it home in 49:07 with Lynne Kerr recovering from injury to record 51:35. Judith Gillespie also exchanged the park run for the flats of the runway to finish in 55:09 followed by Paula Simpson in 56:22, Terry Coyne in 57:37 and Nicola Stevenson in 58:57. Marie Devine was next in 1:01:02 and Helen Beattie recorded 1:04:27.