Mountains from the Mournes to the Alps, via the Peak District, roads and track – whether on the flat or trails there’s been plenty of top class running and t&f action again this week.
The 7th Hill & Dale race of the season was held on Thursday evening on a hilly course of almost 7k over Carn Mountain, Doan, Slieve Loughshannagh and Ott Mountain. The steep climbs and treacherous descents made this one of the toughest races of the series. Gareth Hardy 58:03 led the NDAC contingent back to the finish line followed by Abby Andrews in 1:07:25, Lisa Tomalin 1:12:01, Kevin Mulligan 1:19:17, Claire Scott 1:19:43 Eibhlin Largey 1:23:20, June McMinn 1:25:06 and Fiona McQuillan 1:26:28. John Adgey finished the race in 1:32:48 despite an unfortunate fall and Donald Smith 1:34:26 and Kim McCourt 1:37:26 rounded off the club’s finishers.
https://www.webscorer.com/racedetails?raceid=435901&did=597222
It was the turn of the road racers to post faster times at the Co Down 5k in Downpatrick the following night. Separate races taking in laps of the town centre allowed runners to race in sub 20, sub 25 and over 25 minute categories ensuring closer competition in each event. Harrison Mair set the club up for some speedy times, winning the P6 & P7 race. In race 3 Courtney Thompson was 13th in 28:06 and Pat O’Driscoll finished in 33:45. Race 2 saw Sarah Wilson finish 3rd female in 21:51. Phil Archer was 2nd male in the 25 – 30 minute race in 24:37 and Christine Hannah was 1st female in a new PB of 24:41. Emma Hegarty ran 25:13. Gary Morrow was 7th in the elite race in 16:01 with Dale Murray 13th in 16:24. Sebastian Mair 16:51, Finn Johnston also 16:51 and Carter Rolston 16:52 had a closely fought race ahead of John Ewing 17:12, Jonathan Gibson 17:17, Alasdair Mair 17:35, Francis Marsh 17:55 and Sarah Gibson 20:48.
https://www.championchipireland.com/index.html#results
With significantly more elevation than the entire Hill & Dale race series, the UTMB Trail du Saint Jacques in the French Alps was Matty McParland’s weekend destination, The 139k trail race, south west of Lyon, involves more than 6000m of climbing between Saugues and Le Puy en Velay. Matty completed the gruelling event in 24:09:10
19 North Down AC track and field athletes were representing the club at the NI & Ulster Senior Track and Field Championships at the MPT on Saturday.
Daly Seaton, Casey Seaton and Harrison Mair all took part in the 1k race preceding the senior championships after which they posed for a photo with top Irish athlete, Nick Griggs!
At the Wednesday UCD meet at their home track in Dublin, Tara McDonough made the most of the pacer for the first 2 laps in the Women’s B 1500m before pushing on solo for the win, with a 23 sec pb improvement, in 4:32.81, while at the MPT 3 days later she took silver in 4:38.12 and Rachel Gibson was 4th in 4:43.85 after the first 2 laps were covered at 5 min pace. In the men’s 5000m, defending champion Craig McMeechan was 5th 15:11.73. Thomas Patterson battled with a very large field of 19 athletes to place 7th in 4:04.67 in the mens’ 1500m.
Emma Reid was the youngest of the 10 competitors in the senior women’s discus event and she achieved second place with a new PB of 36.96m only beaten by Ireland’s U23 athlete, Anna Gavigan. Last Sunday she also competed in the NI & Ulster Age Group T&F Championships winning gold medals in U17G discus and U17G shotput and a bronze medal in U17G javelin.
Coco Smith and Holly Blease recently qualified to represent NI Mountain Running Association team competing at the Junior Intercounties Fell Running Championships in Edale in the Peak District on Sunday. Edale was a busy centre of fell running at the weekend with the 268 mile Summer Spine race starting from there earlier that morning. Coco finished 14th in the U16 5.4k race and Holly was also 14th in the U20 7.6k event.
