Now that the cross-country season is truly over the track season has begun in earnest. This week saw the start of the first of the secondary school district rounds, District A, held at Mary Peter’s Track. District A includes so many schools that the events are spread over three days. Thursday was the turn for senior school pupils (Years 4 to Upper six), Friday covered the longer distances for the Junior school pupils (Years 1-3) and next Thursday will cover the remaining junior events.

The senior events are broken down on school years with the Inter category combining years four and five and the senior category combining Lower and Upper six pupils. Depending on the distances and numbers entered in each event, the track races were either held as straight finals or pupils had to progress through semi-finals to run finals later in the day. At the time of writing the report not all results are known.

East Down had four participants in the senior school events and all four came home with medals. Three were competing for Down High School-(Jacob Crawford, James Wright and Oliver Robinson) and one for Assumption Girls School (Anna Gardiner).

Oliver Robinson was the only EDAC runner who needed to progress through a semi-final round in the 400m. There were two semi-finals and Oliver lined up for the first one around 11am in the inside lane giving him the advantage of seeing who he needed to chase down. As the defending 400m Ulster School’s champion he was keen to see his competition. He won his heat and was the fastest qualifier over the two heats in a time of just over 53 seconds. This meant he progressed through to the final later in the day. In the final he was placed in lane four. He had a good start and took the lead halfway down the first straight, never to be caught, comfortably winning in 52.44 seconds. This improved his medal colour from silver last year to gold.

James Wright enjoyed his second high jump competition of the season in the inter category. He was the only EDAC junior who entered a field event. The weather was better than the previous event making it easier for the competitors to stay warm between jumps. James started jumping at 151cm and was delighted to pick up a bronze medal with a jump of 165cm.

Jacob Crawford prefers longer events and so entered the 3k which involved 7.5 laps of the track. He paced well and sat in third place until the last lap when he pushed ahead finishing comfortably in second winning a well-deserved silver medal.

Anna Gardiner was the only Senior EDAC competitor and competed in the 3k. No stranger to these events she paced exceptionally well winning comfortable in a time of 10.14 with a lead of approximately 150m over second place. All four athletics now progress through to the Ulster finals to be held at the Antrim Forum in three weeks time.

Friday was the turn of the junior school pupils with Charlotte Barr and Alex Robinson both representing Down High School. Charlotte ran in the third heat of the year 10 800m. This was one of the events where progression through to the next round was based on time. The winner of each heat got an automatic qualification with the other places given to the fastest qualifiers across all the heats. Charlotte ran well placing fifth in a highly competitive heat.

Alex Robinson decided to try his first 1500m race which was held as a straight final. After a blistering start the runners settled into a steady pace. In a very competitive field he ran well sitting in 3rd until the final lap. He should be pleased coming 5th out of 16 runners in a time of 4.54, a great time for his first attempt at this distance.