While the sun shone this week and world records were smashed, North Down AC’s athletes were racing on the roads, trails and mountains with superb performances from primary school aged children to M80 mountain runners. Congratulations to everyone who ran around the track , up a mountain or over Tower Bridge this week!
Emma Reid competed at the Ulster Schools Track and Field District Championships for Glenlola Collegiate on Wednesday 22nd April finishing first in both Inter Girls Discus (35.75m) and Inter Girls Shotput (11.00m).
The first Primary Schools Mini Meet of the season took place on Wednesday evening at Bangor Sportsplex. After a sunny day, the evening turned out to be quite cold nonetheless a good number of primary school children took part, with some great performances from North Down AC athletes.
The Club had several athletes competing in the P5 Girls section. Mary Cait McClean (representing St. Comgall’s PS) earned a gold medal in the 80m race, with a time of 13.2 seconds; while clubmate Abigail Megarry (Glencraig PS) finished in 16.0 seconds. Both took part in the longer 400m race, with Mary Cait finishing just outside the medals in 1.32.9 (4th place) and Abigail coming home shortly after in 1.39.5. Mary Cait picked up her second medal of the evening in the sand pit, clearing 2.70m to finish 2nd in the long jump with Abigail also jumping an impressive distance. They rounded off their meet by competing in shot put, with both girls showing good technique in a discipline that is new to them.
In the P5 Boys Casey Seaton (Glencraig PS) and Harry Jennings (Crawfordsburn PS) finished 1st equal in the 80m in 12.9, sharing the top spot on the podium. Leon Shankelton (also Glencraig PS) finished just outside the medals in 13.3 seconds, with Jodi Tomalin (Ballyholme PS) and Joshua Beckett (Crawfordsburn PS) also competing. Casey continued his fine evening in winning the 400m by some distance in 1.16.9. Harry was just outside the medal places, covering the single lap in 1.24.2; with Jodi, Leon and Joshua also putting in determined performances.
The North Down AC athletes in the long jump were Casey (4th, 2.96m), Leon (7th, 2.74m) and Jodi (8th, 2.71m.) Harry picked up his second medal of the meet, claiming 2nd place and a silver medal in the Shot Put event (5.80m). Joshua missed out on a medal by mere centimetres (5.48m), and Leon finished off a fine evening’s work with a solid throw of 4.18m.
The Club had a large representation in the P6 Girls section, with Priya Ferguson (Ballyholme PS) sharing top spot on the podium in the 80m sprint event (Joint 1st, 12.5). Isla Little (St. Comgall’s PS, 13.), Lucy Kane (Donaghadee PS, 13.5), Orin Moorhouse (Ballymagee PS, 14.8) and Sara Donegan (Ballyholme PS, 15.6) also competed in the sprint. In the 400m event Priya finished 3rd and claimed the bronze medal, covering one lap of the track in 1.22.1. Isla (1.29.3) and Lucy (1.36.9) both delivered strong runs, particularly with Lucy having missed training recently as she recovered from an injury. Priya, Isla and Lucy then moved on to the long jump event, with Priya claiming another win with a jump of 3.05m. Isla (2.56m) and Lucy (2.27m) finished off their evening with a pair of excellent jumps. In the Shot Put, Orin achieved 5th place with a magnificent throw of 4.41m, while Sara (3.54m) and Priya (3.49m) rounded off a great start to the season for our P6 Girls.
In the P6 Boys 80m Finn Campbell (Ballyholme PS, 12.7) finished just ahead of twins Rory & Finn McCullough (Ballyholme PS, both 13.0). Thomas Close (St Comgall’s PS, 13.5), Ezra Blanc (Ballyholme PS, 14.2), Fox Neill (St Comgall’s PS, 14.2) and Matthew Belshaw (14.8) all ran quick races. In the 400m event Finn McCullough was 2nd in 1.14.2, whilst Rory was 3rd in 1.15.2. Fox finished 5th in 1.18.3, Thomas 7th in 1.21.2 with Ezra just a few strides behind in 1.24.7. In the long jump, Finn Campbell claimed 2nd place with a jump of 3.54m. Rory was 4th (3.51m), Finn 7th (2.97m), Fox 11th (2.89m), Ezra 12th (2.88m), Matthew 15th (2.59m) and Thomas 17th (2.55m). While there were no further medals for the boys in the Shot Put event, Finn Campbell threw an impressive 4.95m, with Ezra and Thomas also taking part.
In the P7 Girls, Jessica Hamilton (Bangor Central Integrated PS) ran the 100m in 16.3, with Emily Allen (Grange PS) just behind her in 16.4. Holly Shields (Ballyholme PS) finished in 16.9, Aria Wright (Newtownards Model PS) ran 17.5, and Emily Jordan (Towerview PS) finished in 18.5. In the longer 600m event, Emily Allen was 7th in 2.11.3, Jessica 12th in 2.29.9 and Aria 13th in 2.31.1, whilst Emily Jordan persevered to finish 14th in 2.45.4, catching two athletes in the home straight. Emily Allen finished 3rd in the long jump (3.44m), whilst Holly was 9th (2.73m) and Emily Jordan was 10th (2.63m). Jessica (2.55m) and Aria (2.53m) rounded off a good showing in the sand pit. Holly also took part in the shot put, finishing 2nd with a throw of 4.72m, whilst Emily Jordan was 11th (3.67m) and Jessica one place behind her in 12th.
In the P7 Boys section, Harrison Mair (St Comgall’s PS) was 3rd overall in the 100m in 15.4, whilst Daly Seaton (Glencraig PS) finished in 15.9, Woodie Cram (Ballyholme PS) in 16.4, and Dominic McClean (St Comgall’s PS) in 16.7. One of the closest fought races of the evening came in the 600m where Harrison took off quickly to build up a good lead over Daly, who narrowed the gap down the home straight, but Harrison held on for the victory – their finishing times being 1.50.9 and 1.51.3. In the long jump Dominic took the bronze medal (3.69m), Woodie was 4th (3.48m), Daly 5th (3.47m) and Harrison 9th (3.03m). Dominic earned 1st place in the evening’s final event, throwing 5.76m to take home the gold medal in Shot Put.
Thanks to Steven Donegan for organising the event and for all the club members who helped out on the evening.
North Down AC was well represented at the second of these year’s Hill & Dale races at Tollymore in perfect running conditions on Thursday evening. The early climb through the forest park and eventually onto open mountainside afforded glorious “golden hour: views of the Mournes before a fast descent back into the park before the stage in the tail of a final 200m uphill section to the finish line. Abby Andrews was the club’s first finisher to complete the 6.6km course with over 350m of ascent, crossing the line as 1st F55 in 42:28. Lisa Tomalin was next in 43:52 immediately ahead of Philip McDonough 43:54 and Kevin Mulligan 44:01. Seán Nickell 45:18 was followed by Donald Smith 46:15, Luke Hamilton 48:36 and Eibhlin Largey 48:46. June McMinn was 1st F65 in 51:00 with Kim McCourt warning up for the London Marathon in 54:50. Sophie Hamilton 57:27 was followed by 1st M80, John Adgey 58:00, Trevor Paterson 58:36, Cara Jeffrey 59:32 and John McGarvey 59:35.
https://www.webscorer.com/race?raceid=428865
NIMRA’s Annalong Horseshoe Race saw several of North Down AC’s Hill & Dale runners make a return trip to the Mournes on Saturday in sunny conditions for the 20k championship race with over 2000m of elevation and the 9k League Race with over 5oom of climbing. Jonathan Gibson was 12th in the Championship Race in 3:12:06 and Gareth Hardy was 36th in 4:01:46.
Eibhlin Largey finished the league race in 1:28:40 followed by Claire Scott 1:33:19, Abby Andrews 1:33:22, June McMinn 1:35:48. Trevor Patterson 1:54:46 and John Adgey 1:56:07.
North Down AC had 3 teams at the Irish National Road Relays in Raheny, north Dublin on Sunday. in the women’s races teams of 3 ran 1, 2 and 1 lap of the 1 mile course while men ran 2,1,3, and 2 laps. The NDAC women’s team of Rachel Gibson, Tara McDonough and Katie Moore finished 9th in 21:53. The men’s A team of Daniel Dines, Josh McDowell, Craig McMeechan and Mark Carberry were 8th in 39:25 and the B team consisting of Kyle McLellanm Malte Kunze, Jamie McMeechan and Dean Varley came 20th in 43:06.
https://myrunresults.com/events/123ie_national_road_relays_2026/5644/results
The London Marathon broke all kinds of records on Sunday. The 13 North Down athletes who made it to the start line in Greenwich Park were among the 1,133,813 who applied in the ballot or secured championship or good for age, or club places to run the iconic route past Cutty Sark, over Tower Bridge, round the Isle of Dogs and past Big Ben and Buckingham Palace to the finish line on the Mall. Many of their clubmates, families and friends were glued to the TV coverage watching 2 men Sebastian Sawe 1:59:30 and marathon debutant Yomif Kejelcha 1:59:41 smash the 2 hour barrier, with the 3rd placed man Half Marathon World Record holder Jacob Kiplimo also break the previous world record in 2:00:28. In a record breaking day Tigst Assefa also broke the women’s world record in 2:15:41.
The first North Down finisher was Marc Neil 2:40:25 followed by Jamie Coulter-Smyth 2:42:22, Andy Nixon 2:47:28, Ivana Anderson 2:52:13 and Jamie Toole 2:52:59.
Chris Couchman 3:26:33 was followed by Sarah Benton who completed ran her second marathon in 6 days, having run Boston on Monday, finishing in 3:30:40. Jill Connolly 3:39:04, Una Kilmartin 3:56:18 and Katlyn Massey 3:59:04 were followed by Matt Ormesher 4:03:26, Kim McCourt 4:28:17 and Emma Hegarty 4:46:16.
