Last Thursday was the third meeting in this year’s Fab 5 series at the Mary Peters Track. East Down AC had seven members competing over six events. Oisín Taylor participated in the U10 boys turbo javelin and threw a distance of 4.89m.

There was a strong turnout for the U12 girls with Tarynn Smyth, Lara Black, Fiadh Kellett and Isla Taylor all competing in the 150m. A total of 28 girls competed over 4 heats. Taking all 3 podium places were the very talented Dundalk St. Gerards girls. First home for East Down AC was Tarynn Smyth who placed 11th with a time of 25.24s, followed closely by Isla Taylor in 12th with a time of 25.44s. Fiadh Kellet finished in 26.81s and Lara Black in 30.22s.

Tarynn Smyth, Lara Black and Isla Taylor also ran in the 600m with all three shaving a few seconds off their times from the 1st meeting. Isla finished 8th out of 21 competitors, Tarynn 10th and Lara finished in a time of 2:58.95, improving on her time from the 1st meeting by 7 seconds.

In the U12 field events Isla and Lara took part in the long jump. Isla placed 5th out of the 15 competitors, with her longest jump being 2.94m. This was Lara’s first year participating in the Fab 5 series and her first experience of long jump. She was pleased with her distance of 1.99m.

Caelan Morgan, also new to the Fab 5 series, ran in the U16 boys 3000m. Caelan found this long distance tough but stuck the pace well and finished 11th in a time of 11:16.50.

Athlete of the night for East Down AC was Dillon Hynds who ran a great 600m in the U14 age group. Dillon gained a place on the podium, finishing in 2nd position with a time of 1:39.81. He was pipped to the post by Cormac Leheny of North Belfast Harriers who finished just 0.56s ahead of him.