It was another busy week of club activity on roads and track on both sides of the border with plenty of trails and even a bit of Wales thrown in!
On Wednesday four NDAC runners raced the Crossgar 10k. Sarah Connolly set her 2nd 10k PB in a week, taking another 2 seconds off her Ardglass time to finish in 43:12. Andrew Strutt was narrowly behind her in 43:14 and Michael Barr ran his second fastest 10k finishing in 50:05 and Jonny Wilson completed the 10k in 1:01:49.
John Ewing ran a PB of 16:49 at the Carlingford 5k on Friday night. The out and back coastal route from Carlingford towards Greenore attracted a high quality field of runners and John finished in 47th place in his best time since his return to running last year.
At the Irish Masters Track and Field Championships at the Morton Stadium on Friday night Rachel Gibson produced an impressive 4:41.67 to take the W35 1500m title.
https://myrunresults.com/events/carlingford_5k_2026/6122/results
6 North Down AC runners headed for the hills from Cushendall on Saturday at the annual Lurig Challenge Run. Race entry reaches its capacity in minutes, months beforehand, for the privilege of running through the County Antrim village to the 1073 foot summit of nearby Lurig then descending, sometimes sliding on their bottoms, back to the coast nearly 4 miles later. Gareth Hardy was the club’s first finisher in 37:20 followed by 1st F55 Abby Andrews 44:48, Clair Quigley 45:30, Lisa Tomalin 46:15, Claire Scott 47:55 and 1st F65 June McMinn 49:39.
https://www.championchipireland.com/index.html#results
Saturday’s Seven Sevens race involves a route of almost 30k with over 2650m of ascent summiting the seven highest peaks in the Mournes. Jonathan Gibson finished in 9th place in under 5 hours in 4:59:04
Also in the Mournes on Saturday, although mostly on the road and trails between the Silent Valley and Ben Crom Dam, the Dambusters races offered 5k, 10k and 10 mile options. 3 North Down runners raced in the 5k with Caitlyn Dickenson finishing 1st female (and 4th overall) in 22:17. Lewis Johnston was 5th in 22:31 and Sam Jennings took 8th place in 23:56.
Chris Connolly ran 53:07 in the 10k.
Aaron Beggs took on the 10 mile race, running a superb 16 minute course PB for 2nd place in 1:02:00.
https://www.born2runevents.com/dambusters-results/
It was another top 10 North Down AC finish at the Legend of the Lakes 10k in Craigavon on Sunday where Marc Young finished 9th in 43:09.
https://www.championchipireland.com/index.html#results
Matt Ormesher added a Welsh race into his schedule, running the Caernarfon 10k on Sunday morning. Starting and finishing near the castle, Matt raced round the 10k loop in 49:25.
The British Transplant Games were held in Sheffield between 6th – 9th August . 2860 participants, including 1145 transplanted athletes competed in a wide range of sports. Jenny Keery won gold in golf and finished 3rd in the Donor Female 5k.
