Most impressive of the East Down debutants in the 3rd round of the McGrady's Financial Services Junior Cross Country series last weekend in Tollymore Park was Mackenzie Murray who fairly romped home in the P5 Boys race with clubmate Michael O'Connor making it a 1,2 just behind. In near perfect conditions a record 41 East Down juniors took part in the various age group races and were given an inspirational start by Jack Dornan in the P4 and Under Boys race as he took a superb 2nd place behind Newcastle's James McVeigh. Another to catch the eye in that race was Jamie McDowell with a power packed run in 5th place and both were well backed up by Lewis McMullan and Thomas Nay. In the P4 Girls race Anna Gardiner was again a notable winner with everyone doing double takes as first Eimear and Ciara McCann and then Emma and Louise Wiggins surged up the hill to the line.
P6 TO YEAR 8
Daniel Burke, another on his debut, and Christopher McMullan were the only East Down runners in the P6 race with Cara Doran, Isabella McCreesh and Lucy Morgan representing the Girls and contributing valuable team points. Andrew McGrattan picked up another 14 valuable points with his 5th place in the P7 Boys race while Natasha Savage, Beth Watterson, Grace Surginor and Elisha McMenamin added another 17 in the Girls equivalent. Adam Morgan, again the lone East Down representative in the Year 8 Boys contest, battled gamely as ever and posted 3 points for his efforts. He remains an inspiration to all.
BIG POINTS SCORERS
The Year 8 Girls race provided the club with its 2nd best points return of the day as Chloe Galloway's front running tactics led the field through the finish with Edie Carroll in 5th Ciara Flynn, Ellen O'Hare and Sarah Glover 7th , 8th and 9th respectively to amass 38 points.
Owen Edwards 2nd was magnificent in the Year 9 Boys race ably supported by Matthew McGrattan and Tony Carson to collect another 26 points. Anna Lynn continued the good work with a splendid 2nd in the Year 9 Girls race, with Olivia Burke adding a precious point for 7th place. Daniel Atkinson and Christopher O'Connor kept he points counter ticking in the Year 10 race adding another 16.
EVEN BIGGER POINTS SCORERS
It was the year 10 Girls however who contributed the day's biggest points total for the East Down outfit, as Laura Green 2nd, Aoife Cochrane 4th, Ella Carroll 5th , Elisha Surginor 6th and Dionne McEvoy 8th grabbed a total of 41.
The day's proceedings were wound up with the Year 11+ races with Caolan Atkinson taking 3rd in the Boys and Laura Gardiner having a relatively easy passage with victory in the Girls race, with Amy Godfrey 5th.
ALL WINNERS
All in all a great day in which all the participants clearly enjoyed the occasion almost as much as the proud parents, coaches and family friends. Well Done to Newcastle AC for presenting such a well organised event.
SPRINGWELL CROSS COUNTRY
The ANI Senior Cross Country League kicked off on Saturday with a new addition to the programme. The first round saw action in the sun kissed University Campus in Coleraine where the progressive Springwell Running Club justified the confidence placed in them by the governing body by presenting an excellent programme over a 1 mile circuit which contained just about everything one would expect from a true cross country course. It certainly proved to the liking of Brendan Teer as, after a cat and mouse game played out with Ballymena's Johnny Steede, Alan Bogle, Greg Roberts and Emmett McGinty of City of Derry, Foyle Valley's Scott Rankin and Keith Shiels over the opening 2 laps, the East Down man moved up a gear and was never in danger of being caught. He crossed the line 25 seconds ahead of Rankin with Bogle third and Steede 4th. Further down the field a series of battles were being fought and the other 3 members of the East Down team were picking off their rivals one by one. None to better effect than the vastly improved Paul Burns who has been in sparkling form on the roads in recent weeks and finished 37th On the final lap he had caught team mate Barrie Atkinson who claimed cake making late at night had taken the edge off his stamina, but finishing 40th in a high quality field is no reason to feel disappointed.
ICING ON THE CAKE
The aforementioned cake was actually to celebrate Michael Cultra's birthday and in spite of another year on the clock he finished in 53rd place and was able to enjoy a slice of the mouth watering confection. The excuse offered by all these so called clean living athletes was that as it contained strawberries it was part of their “5 a Day”. Luckily I was on hand to quality check the cake and confirm that it could indeed be classified as medicinal.
Newcastle's only participant was Damien McDaid who ran well throughout to take 50th place but he must be asking where were the others?
JUNIORS
The only Juniors to make the long trip north were Aoife Cochrane who gave the usual good account of herself over the 2 miles Under 15 Girls race with Daniel Atkinson performing similar heroics in the Boys race. Big brother Caolan ran strongly in a highly competitive Under 17 Boys race and maintained a good pace throughout the 3 mile test.
DUTCH COURAGE
Phillip and helen vint were the club's only representatives in the amsterdam half and full marathons on sunday, with phillip having first go at the scenic riverside route, posting a highly satisfactory marathon time of 3.26 and helen tackling the half distance and recording what I believe is a new pb, certainly over the Amsterdam course, of 1.53. They will of course be back in time for the Dublin marathon next Monday.
NEXT WEEK
Next weekend the NI and Ulster Age Group Championships take place in Kilbroney Park, Rostrevor with the Bobby Rea Memorial Race counting as round 2 of the Senior League.
Joe Quinn
20 October 2013
