The Ulster Hall was the venue on Wednesday 22 May for the presentation of the Belfast City Marathon Age Category and Relay Race prizes and special awards to Pacers and Charity Fund Raisers. Local interest centred on East Down's members Liam Keenan with success in the Over 50 Category, won in a magnificent 2.59, Cheryl Denvir's 4th place in the Over 35 category in 3.32 and Gavin Oakes who paced the sub 4 hour group superbly to a 3.58 finish.

The occasion also saw the presentation of the Moira O'Neill Memorial Trophy to be awarded annually to the first Northern Ireland Lady to cross the finish line. Moira won the Belfast marathon in 1985 and 1986 and set a record of 2.37.07 in Dublin in 1988 which stood for 13 years. Her time still stands as 2nd fastest ever on the Northern Ireland all time list. She represented NI in the Commonwealth Games in Edinburgh in 1986 and Auckland in 1990.

Moira sadly passed away last August after a long illness and it was thought appropriate to mark her contribution to Marathon running with the award of the annual trophy.

The well deserved first recipient of the award was Julie Balmer a prolific runner and star of the North Down club who has several sub 3 hour marathons to her credit and was just over the 3 hour mark this year in winning the Over 35 category. Moira's parents, sister and husband Gerry were present to hand over the beautiful trophy to Julie.