EAST DOWN UNDER 13 GIRLS ARE ALL IRELAND CHAMPIONS!!!
There was no problem choosing the Headline makers this week as East Down’s youngsters performed superbly in Waterford on Sunday to claim the All Ireland Under 13 Girls’ Cross Country Champions title. The team travelled without the reliable and ever present Emily Burns who unfortunately succumbed to illness during the week. So the 5 strong team, made up of Lauren Madine, Kirsti Foster, Anna Gardiner, Lucy Foster and
Kara Trainor used Emily as their inspiration to bring home medals of some colour. The course was described by Club coach Peter Morgan who accompanied the squad to the venue as “ difficult to negotiate with long grass, sharp inclines and descents, soft underfoot and quite muddy in places, in other words a proper cross country course” But it was bread and butter to the girls from East Down who responded magnificently and had to dig deep as the opposition was of the highest quality. But it was in the later stages of the 2.5K distance when the questions were asked of them all that they showed the value of the Sunday morning get togethers, often in cold and wet conditions, over the past 3 months. responding mightily to the shouts of encouragement Lauren Madine led the charge for the line, placing in 3rd overall for her individual bronze medal, and then waiting for her team mates to follow. Next across the line was Kirsti Foster in 15th place, followed by Anna Gardiner in 23rd, Lucy Foster in 48th and Kara Trainor in 105th .
CROSS COUNTRY – GOLD MEDAL WINNERS
The Club team placings are based on the positions of the first 4 runners to finish and so the EDAC 89 points total was not only sufficient to ensure that the GOLD medal would come to Co. Down for the first time ever but the 37 point difference between 1st and 2nd placed team scores showed the County town’s domination of the race. Kara Trainor fought well for her place, which just to underline the value of strength in depth in such events, had her position been required to complete the scoring would still have given the team 2nd place. So well done to her and to Emily too for their contributions to the squad’s success all the way through to the finals.
WELL DONE TO THE PARENTS
A special word of thanks is also in order for the parents of all the children. Bringing the children to and from training and coaching sessions and even attending the Provincial and All-Ireland finals is often a thankless task but not in this one as we are happy to record that withot your help this success would not have been possible. So Take a bow Mums and Dads.
LAUREN WINS THE COMPLETE SET
However the Girls glory did not end with the Club team title as Lauren and Kirsti were also part of Ulster’s top 6 scorers in the Provincial title battle which saw them finish 2nd only to Munster and so they collected Silver medals for that as well. Which actually made it a complete set of medals for Lauren, with Gold in the Club Team , Silver in the Provincial battle and individual Bronze. What a day for her!
MORE TO COME?
And although I haven’t had time to check it out yet, they could well have taken a Bronze medal in the County Team competitions as at the time of writing there is no score recorded at all for Co. Down
JODI TAKES A MEDAL TOO
Just in case anyone thinks that we’re a one category club, Jodi Foster, the third member of the family to compete on Sunday, ran a great race in the Under 11 Girls final and her 21st placing out of 167 finishers meant she was one of the top 6 scorers for Ulster, who placed 3rd in the Inter Provincial contest and as a result she picked up a Bronze medal. Great day out for the Fosters!
NORTH WEST CROSS COUNTRY
Carmel Tumelty was the only East Down runner to make the journey to Foyle Park in Derry on Saturday, well done to her, and in the absence of team points the EDAC Ladies team dropped from 2nd to 4th place in the League. But look out in 2018, they’ll be back!
HOME GROUND
With Derry XC shelved by the EDAC Ladies Janine Murray had to get her fix of mud so she duly turned out for Castlewellan parkrun. Closer to home but just as competive. She was joined on the trails by team mate Aoife Cochrane who is becoming a park run regular. Janine’s son Mackenzie also made the effort to get out of bed for the early start.
KILMOOD and BALLYGALGET SANTA RUNS ON SUNDAY
Callum Kent ran in the Kilmood Santa 5K race on Sunday afternoon, and was run out of a podium place by a pretty hot trio of runners. Unable to find any results of the Ballygalget AC promoted races on Sunday but will update next week.
EAST OF IRELAND (EOI) MARATHON SERIES
Phillip Vint’s latest escapade in on the marathon front came in the EOI Series which was held in Howth on Friday and Saturday in the quaintly named B2B marathons. B2B means “back to back” and while that means that one is done on Friday and the other on Saturday, they represent a daunting challenge to the fittest of competitors. But add in the fact that course changes for the Saturday challenge, brought about to accommodate the town’s Christmas Market, resulted in having to climb Howth Head 6 times – 6000 feet of climbing – and a dose of flu earlier in the week and you can guess it was not a walk in the park! Anyway Phillip duly completed the Friday leg of the duo in 4.09 and given the aforementioned reasons he could be well pleased with completing leg 2 in 4.34. These results meant that he finished overall 3rd in the Series – a commendable achievement and one which means he can relax, confident that clocking up his 50th marathon on 30th December when he tackles the EAMS Loughshore event, will not be any more difficult.
HAPPY CHRISTMAS EVERYONE.
Joe Quinn
18 December 2017