weekly roundup 24/05/26: Ulster Schools, BDAC mini meet, Hill & Dale, BMC / MPT 50th Anniversary meet, Argory 12 hour challenge, Marconi 5 mile, Newry Half Marathon and 10k, Edinburgh Half Marathon, Mull of Kintyre Half Marathon, Rankin Round

In another busy week for club members, the junior athletes enjoyed success in the t&f at the latest mini meet while the older runners have been busy on and off road!

Here are some additional results form last week’s Ulster Schools Track & Field; Anna Moran 2nd in Senior LJ and 2nd Javelin with PBs in both, Roger McMullan 1st in senior LJ with PB Zac Fox 1st in Inter LJ with PB, Jessica Liddell 1st in Junior girls LJ and 2nd in HJ Emma Reid 1st in Inter shot and 2nd in discus with PBs in both, Dominik Lipowski 1st inter discus and 4th hammer . Jason Smyth was 2nd in inter shot. Erin Coard 3rd inter girls hammer and 4th shot Paige Shaw 3rd in inter girls HJ, Will Meharg 6th in Inter boys HJ. Masie Rainer 2nd in inter TJ and 5th in LJ, Abby Irwin 3rd TJ and 5th discus ,Poppy Earl 1st Junior 75m Hurdles, 3rd in 200m Cameron McCracken 1st senior 110m hurdles and 1st 4x100m/ Josh Ligget 3rd senior 110m hurdles Matthew Knight 3rd senior 400m (PB) and 1st 400m hurdles Tomas Montgomery 2nd inter 400m Eva Patton Inter 80m hurdles Katie Johnson 4th in inter 300m, 3rd in 200m and 1st in 4x100m Travis Truesdale 4th in junior 100m and 200m Devon Wicks 1st mini 4x100m. Henry Spottiswoode 1st mini 4x100m. Jessica Fowles 5th mini girls 100m and 2nd 4x100m. Holly Blease 4th senior steeplechase, James Blease 6th inter steeplechase. Harrison Jamieson 2nd senior boys 400m. Megan Walker 3rd mini 4x100m.

The second Primary Schools Mini Meeting of the season took place on Wednesday evening at the Bangor Sportsplex. The evening was overcast, but the weather milder than that of the first meeting. Following a warm up led by Active Youth NI, a large number of primary school children took part, with some great performances from North Down AC athletes.

Medals were presented by North Down AC’s very own Olympian, Rachel McCann! Fresh from helping the Irish Women’s 4 x
400m team qualify for the World Athletics Championships in Beijing later this year, Rachel was on hand to congratulate the next generation of athletes from the area.

In the P5 Girls, Mary Cait McClean (St. Comgall’s PS) earned another gold medal in the 80m race, with a time of 12.7 seconds. Mary Cait picked up her second medal of the evening in the sand pit, clearing 2.80m to finish 2nd in the long jump.
In the P5 Boys, Harry Jennings (Crawfordsburn PS) ran the 80m in 12.7. Also competing over this distance were Jodi Tomalin (Ballyholme PS) who finished in 13.7 and Joshua Beckett (Crawfordsburn PS, 14.2). Harry also took part in the 400m,
finishing 2nd in 1.17.4, with Jodi finishing in 1.22.7. Harry was also 2nd in the long jump, with a jump of 3.30m, whilst Jodi was 6th in this event with a jump of 2.98m. Joshua has recently been working incredibly hard at the shot put, and his efforts were rewarded with him winning the event with a throw of 5.13m.

The club had a good representation in the P6 Girls section, with Isla Little (St Comgall’s PS) running the 80m in 12.8. Also competing in this event were Emma Strawbridge (Grange Park PS, 13.0), Lucy Kane (Donaghadee PS, 13.7), Cashleen
Keag (St. Comgall’s PS, 14.5) and Sara Donegan (Ballyholme PS, 14.7.) In the 400m Emma claimed the bronze medal in 1.20.9, Isla finished in 1.27.1 with Lucy just a step behind in 1.27.6, and Cashleen finishing in 1.35.2. In the long jump, Isla was 13th with a jump of 2.52m, Emma 15th with 2.46m, Lucy was 19th (2.24m) and Cashleen 20th with a 2.20m leap. Finally in the shot put, Sara was 12th with a throw of 3.88m.

In the P6 Boys 80m, both Noah Parker (Kilmaine PS) and Finn Campbell (Ballyholme PS) finished in 12 seconds exactly, with Noah also winning his heat. Also competing were Rory McCullough (Ballyholme PS, 12.3), Thomas Close (St Comgall’s PS, 12.4), Finn McCullough (Ballyholme PS, 12.8) and Fox Neill (St Comgall’s PS, 14.2). In the 400m event Rory finished just outside the medals in 1.14.2, whilst his twin, Finn, competed the one lap in 1.14.5. Fox also finished in 1.14.5, whilst Thomas ran in 1.19.2, Noah in 1.25.8 and Finn Cambell in 1.26.4. All six boys were competing in the long jump, with Rory finishing in 5th place (3.27m),
Finn Campbell 6th (3.22m), Finn McCullough 7th (3m), Thomas 14th (2.69m), Noah 15th (2.54m) and Fox 19th (2.10m). In the shot put, Finn Campbell saved his best for last, with a final throw of 5.39m to claim 2nd place and the silver medal.

In the P7 Girls, Emily Allen (Grange PS) ran the 100m in 15.5, with Holly Shields (Ballyholme PS) finishing in 16.1 and Jessica Hamilton (Bangor Central Integrated PS) in 16.7. In the longer 600m event, Emily Allen finished in 2.09.05, whilst Jessica
ran 2.25.9. Emily then won the long jump with a jump of 3.81, whilst Holly was 11th (2.92m) Jessica 16th (2.6m). Holly also took part in the shot put, finishing 7th with a throw of 4.6m.
In the P7 Boys, Woodie Cram (Ballyholme PS) ran in the 100m in 14.7, whilst Mason McPeake (Kilmaine PS) finished in 15.9 and Jake Yarnall (Ballymagee PS) in 16.7. In the 600m Jake had the lead for most of the race but was overtaken in the home straight by the eventual winner and Woodie, who was 2nd in 2.03.7, to finish 3rd in 2.04.0. Also running was Mason who finished 5th in 2.11.9. In the long jump, Woodie picked up a bronze medal with a jump of 3.45m, Mason was again 5th (3.10m) and Jake 13th (2.59m).

Thanks again to Steven Donegan for organising the event and to the many club members who helped out on the evening.

Here’s a link to Steven’s photographs from the evening https://www.facebook.com/northdownathleticclub

The 5th of this year’s Hill & Dale races took runners from Meelmore Lodge up Slievenaglough before a slippery descent to the base of Luke’s Mountain. After a shorter climb to the summit runners chose their own, inevitably muddy route with a variety of tip hazards back to Meelmore Lodge. The overall distance was approximately 7k with approximately 500m of climbing and an average of 2 falls per runner! First of the NDAC runners to cross the finish line was the man celebrating his birthday in style, Jeremy Tomalin 56:38. Abby Andrews 56:42 was 1st F55 and the first runner to appreciate that Jeremy’s had brought birthday cakes to share. Clair Quigley was 1st F45 in 58:28. Lisa Tomalin 1:01:40 was followed by Kevin Mulligan 1:03:21 and Luke Hamilton 1:03:32. Claire Scott 1:06:18 finished ahead of Donald Smith 1:10:03 and 1st M80 John Adgey 1:10:06. Fiona McQuillan 1:12:48, Trevor Patterson 1:16:59 and Kim McCourt 1:20:33 were followed by John McGarvey in his first season of H&D in 1:24:38.

On Friday night Thomas Patterson set a track 5000m PB of 15:21.44 at the Belgrave Harriers Comeback 5000m meet at Battersea Park, while further North in Glasgow, Luke McDowell took his 3000m track PB down to 8:58.42 at the GAA miler meet.

At Saturday’s Mary Peter’s/BMC meet celebrating the 50 years off the Mary Peters Track nine North Down AC runners raced in the mile. In the men’s, Craig McMeechan ran 4:17.48 for 4th in the men’s B race. Daniel Dines won the C race in 4:21.78 with 15yr old Ethan Constable clocking 4:33.64 PB. The D race was busy with four NDAC athletes; Ollie Playfair was first home in 4th 4:44.49 followed by Malte Kunze 4:48.99, John Ewing 4:55.34 and Nick Irvine 5:04.37. In the women’s B race, Rachel Gibson ran her fastest mile since 2023 placing 2nd in 5:01.56 with 15 year old Maia Johnston clocking 5:47.40PB.

Mark Walker won the 12 hour Argory Twilight Endurance Challenge in Dungannon organised by Gaithouse Events on Saturday. Here’s his report.

The race started at 6pm in 21°C heat and ran through to 6am the following morning. The 2.05 mile looped course was mostly flat, but the majority of it was gravel with plenty of uneven surfaces to keep you honest.

I only decided on Thursday that I’d run it, so I went in completely untapered, with an 82-mile run still in my legs from two weeks earlier. To add a bit more punishment, I’d also been pacing at Bangor parkrun on race day morning. I treated this as my final really long training run before the “Last One Standing” ultra in four weeks.

The early miles were really enjoyable. I spent the first hour chatting with Daniel, a great lad just starting out on his marathon and ultra journey. The heat and terrain made things tough, and although I appreciated the cooler temperatures later on, the darkness brought its own challenges. I rolled both ankles several times and was lucky not to hit the deck or do any real damage.

This race turned out to be the complete opposite of Dublin to Belfast two weeks earlier. At D2B my legs felt strong, but my stomach gave up spectacularly at both ends, forcing me to drop out. This time the stomach behaved perfectly… but my legs completely died from around 35 miles onward. After the six-hour mark I asked the organisers how things were looking and was surprised to hear I was around five laps ahead. I had reached 42 miles, so I knew I had a decent cushion and could ease the pace a
little. Phew! At around eight hours I hit my second marathon distance, which had been a mini-goal. From there, I treated the final hours as practice for the Last One Standing format — two slow laps (4.1 miles), then a break, and repeat.

The timing updates had stopped after halfway, so I had no real idea where I stood. Then, after reaching 65 miles with about 1 hour 15 minutes remaining, I finally got an update: I’d completed 32 laps, while second place had done 24. At that point I knew the win was secured.

I decided to head out for one final lap to finish on 67 miles — mainly because I knew my 12-year-old daughter Charlotte would absolutely love the “6-7” result. I managed to finish with almost an hour to spare. I can confirm Charlotte was very excited when I told her!

A brilliant, friendly, and very well-organised event. Gaithouse Events offer 3, 6, and 12-hour options, so there’s something for everyone. Highly recommended!

The little white dog I have in my hand is my good luck charm for ultra races. Charlotte gave it to me when she was four saying ‘I
love you Daddy and this is for you’. 🙂

Anna Carberry ran in the Edinburgh Half Marathon on Sunday finishing in an excellent 1:39:13.

Also taking on a half marathon on Sunday was Michael Stevenson who ran the Newry Half Marathon. Starting and finishing at the Quays Shopping Centre runners followed an out and back flat course towards Narrow Water Keep with some extra miles in the Greenbank Industrial Estate. Michael finished in 2:08:47. Pat O’Driscoll opted for the 10k option and finished as 1st M75 in 1:27:17.

There wasn’t much mist rolling in from the sea to cool runners down as Andrew Muir took on the Mull of Kintyre Half Marathon on Sunday. Starting and finishing in Campbeltown the runners crossed the peninsula and even had a stunning section of the route along Macrahanish Beach. Andrew finished in 1:50:20.

Sandra and Mick Hall were in Ballycastle for the Marconi 5 Mile road race on Sunday. Runners headed out along the flat coast road before the tight climb towards Corrymeela and the welcome descent back to Ballycastle. Sandra finished in 42:44 and Mick wasn’t far behind in 43:47.

Congratulations to another mountain runner, Gareth Hardy who completed the Denis Rankin Round, a circuit of all 39 peaks in the Mourne mountains over 400m in height, covering 90km and 6500m in ascent. Runners taking on the challenge start and finish at the entrance gates to Donard Park and complete the peaks over a set clockwise or anti clockwise route. Gareth started his round at 10pm on Friday night and finished in 22:41:34. He was hugely grateful for all the messages of support from the “dot watchers” following his online tracker and the many friends and club members who came out to cheer him on and support him in the mountains.