The Seeley Cup 2023

The 40th edition of the Joe Seeley Cup hosted by Willowfield & Temperance Harriers took place on Saturday 4th of December in the Ormeau Park in Belfast. A large and colourful number of runners lined up on the Embankment ready for the whistle. It was near perfect conditions for running, dry, mild and an unusual stillness in the air. Other than the damp leaves strewn along the route in the park there were no major hazards to prevent the runners from going full throttle.

EDAC’s Neil McCartan was right on the front line as the starter let them away and he focused on hanging on to the front runners who established themselves into a couple of groups in the first 500 metres. There were 3 men who broke away with relative ease namely Ben Branagh (St Malachy’s AC), Eskander Turki (Annadale Striders) and William Bryan of Southampton Athletic Club. They treated the spectators to an epic battle with the Branagh and Turki glued together for the full 3 laps and Bryan trying to hook on. The win was only decided in the last gasp of the final sprint with Ben Branagh (previous winner of Jimmy’s 10) clocking 29.49 and holding off Turki by 1 second. Third place went to Bryan who was only 4 seconds behind. All 3 went under 30 minutes for the 10K distance while the next 6 broke 31 minutes. This gives a fair idea of the calibre of the field.

Neil leads EDAC home

Neil had fared well by finding a group to pace with and he was more than happy with 11th place overall and the fact that his time of 31.06 was 20 seconds quicker than his previous best time. A great run by him. Other EDAC athletes involved included recent recruit Adam Withers. He may have gone off a little faster than he intended which is easy done when those around you are dragging you along but he ran remarkably well and ended up 132nd in a time of 35.41. There is a definitely a sub 35 on the radar for this guy. Neil Curran’s race was in contrast to Adam’s in that he went off steadily and as the laps ensued and he felt good, he increased his pace to run a quicker second half. His time of 36.10 was a just account of his efforts. Paul Burns had made no bones about his intention to race and race hard. He ran well and was within reach of his personal best but couldn’t find the speed to improve it. Nothing to be disappointed with though with his time of 36.31 which ranked him 171st out of the 835 finishers. Seamus Savage with the Dublin Marathon still heavy in his legs wasn’t expecting too much of himself but did better than he anticipated. He wanted sub 44 minutes and was 42.21 in 436th place. Gareth Reilly was the next EDAC man home and he went both under the radar amongst the crowds and under 45 minutes in 44.10 (539th). This suited him well on both counts.

The Ladies’ Race

On the female front there was no doubt as to who would lift the trophy. Emma Mitchell of Clonliffe Harriers (also a previous Jimmy’s 10 winner) has the pedigree on paper and was in good shape to put out a good performance. She clocked a very impressive 33.31 which equalled the course record and was 50 seconds ahead of 2nd placed female Nakita Burke of Letterkenny AC. EDAC had 3 runners – Catherine O’Connor, Carmel Ross and Sam Anderson. Catherine has been having a very successful cross country season and would see herself as more suited to 5K distance both on and off road but she likes a good blow out at the Seeley. She went off in the masses and when the dust settled she found herself well up the female rankings. She found the 2nd lap a bit of a slog but she kept her head and finished hard. She was delighted to find that she was 6= quickest female overallin 35.46 and 2nd in her age category. Turns out she is not so bad at 10Ks after all! Carmel Ross has settled in to the club very quickly and is a welcome addition. It was great to see her race in the vest and to witness her satisfaction when she broke 50 minutes as that was her goal. With consistent training no doubt she will continue to carve away at her time of 49.51. Sam Anderson taking things at her own pace found herself lapped by some of the speedier runners and she thanked the her EDAC club mates for their shout outs as they slipped by. That is what it is all about – team spirit and camaraderie is what keeps us all turning up.