Saturday saw the welcome return of competitive high quality Relay running to the sporting calendar after an absence of several years. Fledgling club Orangegrove AC organised the event in the idyllic surroundings of Belfast's Victoria Park and were rewarded with ideal running conditions. East Down had 2 Male teams, in the Open and Masters categories and acquitted themselves admirably in both races which were won by the dominant by Annadale Striders. With 16 teams going to the line the Open quartet was led off by Brendan Teer followed by Stephen Shannon, Neil McCartan and Liam Venney on the anchor leg. Each runner completed 2 laps amounting to 3380 metres, just over 2 miles. Brendan completed his 2 laps in 10.27, Stephen weighed in with 11.43, Neil recorded 11.56 and Liam finished with a 10.39 to give an overall total of 44.44.
This was a high quality effort from the East Down men and only a little further behind came the Master's team (used to be Veterans but whatever they're called you only got in because you're not getting any younger) led by Liam Keenan 11.54 , with Declan Teague 12.21 on the 2nd leg, Mark McDowell 12.19 on 3rd and Norman Mawhinney a superb 12.55 on anchor. The combined time was 49.29 and considering that their combined age is 182 years this was super running too. They only missed out on 3rd place medals by 36 seconds. So that's just 9 seconds each to make up next time! Three out of the four are heading for the Dublin marathon in 3 weeks time and can take heart from their level of fitness.
Before the relays East Down had 5 juniors out in the Boys and Girls races and had highly satisfactory performances with excellent times from Laura Gardiner 4th in 6.45, Aoife Cochrane 5th in 6.58 and Eimear Connor 9th in 7.50 in the Under 13 Girls race. The only East Down boy in this age group was Owen Edwards who ran a controlled race to take 7th place in an impressive 6.35 in a highly competitive field The only other Junior to travel was David Devenney who had the satisfaction of running 2 laps as he recorded 12.37 in the Under 17 Boys contest over a 3K distance.
So well done everyone who took part.
Next Saturday a much larger contingent of Juniors is expected in Tollymore for the 2nd in the McGrady's Financial Services Junior Cross Country series, so no wild parties the night before and no sleepovers!
Joe Quinn
