It seems like a long time ago but in reality it was only last Tuesday that East Down’s Lauren Madine was repeating her success of last Sunday in the McGrady’s series in Kilbroney Park, when representing her school St Brigid’s, in the Flahavan’s Porridge Primary Schools Cross Country League fixture at Henry Jones Playing fields in Belfast.
On Friday night the Club held its first Junior awards night for some time and alarm bells were ringing early at the forecasts of the weather for Saturday’s junior cross country in Ballyclare. Not only that but alarms were literally ringing like sleigh bells shortly after the proceedings started, due to an over sensitive heat sensor, which was clearly powered by a well known battery as it was still going strong 2 hours later.
ON TO SATURDAY.
A wet, windy and thoroughly nasty Saturday morning did not augur well for the athletes from clubs across the country contemplating participation in the Malcolm Cup Cross Country races in Ballyclare. Nevertheless the turnout was impressive as the new found enthusiasm for the turf continues unabated. Barrie Atkinson and Joe Quinn turned out in the shorter Masters race over 3 miles, which in the conditions was far enough, and Barrie claimed an impressive third place. The Ladies race, run in conjunction with the Masters, also saw an East Down team compete, and, led by Catherine O’ Connor the other three members Alison Gilliland, Janine Murray and Carmel Tumelty all performed very well.
Aoife Cochrane and Ella Carroll picked up trophies for their top five finishes in the Under 17 race with Daniel Atkinson, the only East Down boy to compete on the day, taking a good 7th place in the Under 17 Boys reace.
MALCOLM CUP
The Malcolm Cup race itself is a Cross Country League fixture and East Down had 5 men in the line up. Neil McCartan followed up his impressive run in last week’s Seeley Cup with an even better performance, finishing a close 4th behind Brian Campbell and ahead of Scott Rankin, Andrew Agnew and Andrew Anett, all of whom bettered in Ormeau Park. Michael Cultra and Ciaran Denvir finished together in 59th and 60th places respectively while Gary Cull turned in another excellent performance in 71st place, just 2 places ahead of he returning Caolan Atkinson, who will come on a treat for this outing.
GRIDDLE 10K AND FUN RUN
Sunday was, as usual a perfect day for the 7th running of the Griddle 10K and Fun Run which this year had been given a significant makeover and new impetus through the efforts of Aurla McLoughlin and her 3rd Year Class of students from SERC. The prize structure had been boosted by virtue of the students success at obtaining sponsorship, a new Relay option was on offer and the Fun Run start was relocated to Ballyalton to streamline marshalling requirements. Emphasis was placed on the physical challenge aspect of the course – and it paid off handsomely.
Record numbers turned out and over 130 runners completed the 10K.
THE 10K RACE
East Down fielded 35 runners in the 10K race with several more in the Fun Run and Relay. With Brendan Teer taking time off to recover from his efforts in the Dublin marathon it looked on paper that the contest would be a battle between Newcastle’s Marty Melville and defending champion Richard Coey from Ballydrain Harriers. However Stephen Wylie from the North Down club trumped all the speculation with an emphatic win, sprinting home almost a minute ahead of Melville with Coey in 4th place. Third place went to Aidan Brown, who was 2nd in 2014 and another Newcastle runner who is on fire right now.
It was reported afterwards that Stephen took the bus to Downpatrick and on discovering that Saul was not just round the corner, proceeded to run to the venue, following directions given by a man whose name was clearly not Melville or Brown!
East Down runners made a clean sweep of the category prizes with James Savage in 5th overall position taking the Over 35, Dee Murray the Over 45 and Liam Keenan the Over 50’s prizes respectively.
LADIES WINNERS
The Ladies race was won by Heather Foley, a winner 2 years ago, who was overall 6th place and would be a welcome member of any club should she choose to join. East Down’s Catherine O’Connor was 2nd and Laura Gardiner completed the podium positions for the home club.
East Down’s ladies only just failed to emulate the men in the ctagory prizes too, with Alison Gilliland taking the Over 35 prize and Alison Carroll the Over 50’s, the hat trick only thwarted by Ballygalget’s Letitia Fitzsimmons, a regular competitor on this side of the Lough and a deserved winner of the Over 45 award.
THE 5K “FUN RUN”
The winner of the 5K race, which is actually more like 4.5K due to its start at the Roadhouses was East Down’s Daniel Atkinson, whose performance has moved up a significant level in recent weeks with club mate James Smyth second for the second year in a row, followed by Matthew McGrattan giving the East Down club a clean sweep.
The first of the female runners in the 5K also precipitated another East Down hat trick with Hannah Gilliland first across the line followed by Ella Carroll and making her first appearance in public for the Club a great run by Kirsti Foster in 3rd. Much more will be heard of her as will her mother who was a fast finishing 4th in the 10K.
RELAY RESULT
The first Relay event in the history of the Griddle was another triumph for the East Down Juniors, with Aoife Cochrane teaming up with Elisha Surginor to post a highly commendable 48 minutes with Aoife, who ran the first leg, carrying on to complete her first ever 10K. Anyone choosing the Griddle as the starting point for their 10K career will undoubtedly go far!
THANK YOU
Sincere thanks to the PSNI, First Aid providers, the Registration and Results crew, all who marshalled and helped in any way and to all the event sponsors. And a special word for the young people who worked so willingly and cheerfully to make their project a success. With people like these around there is no reason to fear for the future.
NEXT WEEKEND
It’s another round in the Cross Country League on Saturday, this time at the Mid Ulster Sports Arena near Cookstown, while Sunday sees the firat venture into organising a race by the busy Crossgar harriers Club who are organisinga 5 and 10K Santa Runs to raise funds for a defibrillator. Race gets under way at 12 noon. I would urge you all to go and support this event.
Joe Quinn
7 December 2015