ARDS HALF MARATHON
Brendan Teer exacted full revenge on his Lisburn 10K conqueror Joe McAllister on Friday night when he claimed a superb 2nd place in the Ards Half Marathon, clocking a new PB in the process. Brendan was only headed by Conor Magill whose 1.10.38 time would not have been bettered by many over the tough windswept route. Brendan, always up with the leaders, clocked 1.12.11 to get the better of the tough veteran Allan McCullough with McAllister well back in 4th place.
Declan Teague ran another excellent time, his 1.27.46 just 1 second slower than Lisburn less than 2 weeks ago and just 4 seconds short of his PB – Look out Dublin in September! The ever consistent Michael McKeown clocked 1.31.08 just 31 seconds ahead of his in-club rival Francis Tumelty who knocked nearly 10 minutes off his Lisburn time and Michael Cultra recording 1.38.33. Both of them had used Wednesday's race in Loughinisland as a warm up for the longer distance. Helen Murray provided the sole Female East Down presence and came home well under the 2 hour barrier.
LOUGHINISLAND
This result came on top of Brendan's easy win in the Loughinisland 5.05 mile race on Wednesday night where he clocked 26.50, almost 2 minutes ahead of North Belfast's Martin Rea with East Down's Martin Willcox 3rd in 29.47. Elaine Burch took the ladies prize with a well judged run ahead of Catherine O'Connor and Murlough's Donna McCusker.
Tracey McDowell took the Over 35 prize and Linda Cunningham was 1st Over 45. It was good to see Helen Vint and Emer Moore back in action with Oonagh Breteche, Aurla McLoughlin, Paula Savage, Sharon Carew and Carmel Tumelty all competing well over the new 2 lap route. Welcome returns to action too for Philip Vint 33.18 and Kieran McMahon 44.45 in an 18 strong turnout from the Club. The change of course met with a mixed reception – neither males nor females liked it!
In the half distance Fun Run Aoife Cochrane produced the best run of the year to take the Female trophy, finishing strongly in 21.37, with Mia Carvill taking the Under 16 prize. Daniel Atkinson ran very well to fill 3rd place with Mary-Jo Tumelty also 3rd in the Girl's race, perhaps held up by waiting on her Dad?
HILL and DALE
In addition to these two events Friday also saw the final round of the Hill and Dale Series.
The Ladies having been out in force in Loughinisland wisely avoided both the Friday night offerings but Daniel and Aoife re-appeared again in the Junior race, where only a disappointing 4 East Down athletes turned out, though with Aoife 2nd and Daniel 4th in their respective age groups it was a good week for them. Tara Findlay was 3rd in the Year 8 Girls race and Natasha Savage added the icing to the cake by winning the P5 Girls race. Well Done to them all.
Barrie Atkinson doubled up, taking 7th place in Loughinisland and leading the H & D squad home in 38th followed by regulars Gavin Oakes 65th, Denis McKay 123rd and Michael Degan 129th. With all this experience and the return of some of the injured “mountain men”, the East Down club should be able to mount a realistic team challenge next year.
WHAT'S NEXT
So what's to do this weekend? Well on Friday night there is the Greyabbey 10K and 5K Fun Run at 7.40pm, the 24 Hour track race begins in Bangor at 6.45pm, local interest provided by Gary Flynn who will be attempting to run as far as he can in the round the clock event – Good Luck to him – I'll hopefully be there to check his progress around 1.00am on Saturday, before heading to Crossgar where Kilmore Rec FC have organised a nice little 5 mile road race starting at 12.00 noon, this one perhaps for the shorter distance and less experienced runners who prefer to stay on the road.
And as if that isn't enough there are 2 choices in Tollymore Park, one a 5K Fun Run/Walk at 10.00am and the other a 12K Trail Race at 11.00am, in aid of the Northern Ireland Children's Hospice.
Joe Quinn
2 July 2012
