It was cold and blustery but dry in Antrim at the Ulster Schools Track and Field Championships where
Hannah Lewis,
Ben Reynolds and
Katie Hewitt were all expected to score senior doubles and all delivered. Hannah won the long jump in a Championship Record of 5.64m and easily took the 200m in a hand-timed 24.6 sec though we believe the electric time to be fractionally outside the Commonwealth Youths qualifying time. For good measure she took her Bloomfield team to gold in the relay. Katie took both the 100m hurdles and the 400m hurdles while Ben won the high jump with 1.95m and the 110m hurdles in 14.92 sec. Other wins came at Intermediate discus from
Gareth Irvine with 38.51m and
Kathy Hetherington with 28.50m.
Kiki Malomo Paris won the Senior 100m in 12.9 sec.
David Keys won Senior hammer with 42.04m and was second at discus. Other silvers were
Kim Shaw with 60.2 sec in Senior 400m,
Laura McKeown with 5.21m at Intermediate long jump and
Mark Patterson with 1:56.9 min.
Lauren Scott had a Senior bronze with 2:22.5 min at 800m.
The Senior Boys 800m had been billed as the race of the day and was certainly enthralling but, with a mostly sub 2 minute field, a tactical affair had not been expected. With a slow 61 sec first lap and a very crowded pack with nobody seemed to want to take on the wind. Mark went for a high risk option of breaking with a lap to go. It certainly took the field by surprise and the ante increased when Noel Collins kicked again half way down the back straight. Mark somehow responded and was closing but Noel won in 1:56.5 with Mark in 1:56.9 min. The race came too early for Niall Robinson, still recoveering from injury but he went regardless and did well to take 5th in 2:01.3 min.
Fourth place finishes included Jessica Craig at Senior 1500m, Michael Patterson at Senior steeplechase and Kerrie Craig at Intermediate high jump.
