NI RELAY CHAMPIONSHIPS in VICTORIA PARK
A great day out for all was how Saturday’s Club Relay Championships in Victoria Park in Belfast was described to me and certainly East Down’s performances give rise to considerable optimism for the forthcoming Cross Country League season which kicks off o n 22nd October in Kilbroney Park.
Results as follows with fastest Leg runner shown in bold type
The Senior Men’s Team finished 18th of 37 in a time of 47.07
Paddy Erskine 11:02
Ciaran Denvir 11:41
Andrew Telford 12:00
Michael Cultra 12:25
The Club also fielded 3 Master’s Teams
Masters Men Team A Team finished 10th of 54 in a time of 46.01
Barrie Atkinson 10:27
Martin Willcox 11:27
Michael Cultra 12:20
Davey Foster 11:49
Masters Men Team B Team finished 24th of 54 in a time of 49.56
Liam Keenan 12:23
Dee Murray 12:11
Stephen Heasley 12:48
Declan Teague 12:35
Masters Men Team C finished 41st of 54 in a time of 54.23
Gavin Hynds 12:53
Mark O’Connor 13:57
Gareth Amos 14:51
Mark McDowell 12:42
And No you’re not seeing double nor is there a typing error. Michael Cultra really did run in both the Senior Men’s and Master’s races in order to make up teams and remarkably ran faster in the Master’s category than the Open!! Our thanks to him for his exemplary team spirit and also to Tom Dowey who was a reserve and turned up on the day to cheer everybody on even though he knew he wasn’t going to get a run. I’m going to enter an Old Codgers team next year for Tom and Robert Miskelly, Brian Hamilton and possibly me, just to keep the Over 70s in the picture, though I’m not sure we’d be finished in time for the picture anyway.
LADIES TEAMS
The Ladies too were by no means also rans in the Senior Ladies Race fielding 2 teams which finished in 7th and 16th place respectively.
Senior Ladies Teams Team A finished 7th of 20 in 40.25**
Cheryl Denvir 13.22
Joanne Foster 14.07
Niamh Kellett 12.57
** 15 seconds faster would have given them 5th place
Senior Ladies Team B finished 16th of 20 in 45.33
Janine Murray 15.16
Alison Carroll 15.31
Clare Carson 14.47
JUNIOR RACES
In the Junior races over a 1 mile distance Hannah Gilliland was a notable 3rd in 5.47, just 12 seconds behind the winner, while Mackenzie Murray continues to be the Boys most prolific athlete, taking a mere 6.22 to finish the Under 13 Mile and to take 11th place against many much older opponents.
JOG AROUND the BOG
The second Jog Around the Bog for the Guide Dogs for the Blind charity also took place on Saturday in the beautiful Peatlands Park near Dungannon and attracted over 170 runners. This multi – terrain race over a 10K distance benefitted from the lovely sunny weather and was a hugely enjoyable event, made all the more attractive by the super post race refreshments.
THIS WEEK END
After the Gr8 Dundrum Race on Saturday afternoon everyone is invited to the grand Charity Nigh promoted by East Down AC and Loughinisland GAC in the latter’s clubrooms, in aid of the Cure Parkinson’s Trust, beginning at 8.00pm with music by Red Biddy.
ALL DONATIONS WELCOME
Full bar facilities are available and admission is by donation at the door. With a charity raffle on the night a great night’s craic is anticipated. Please come along and support this worthy cause. Everyone is invited, Runners, Non – runners and Dissenters. Parkinson’s doesn’t discriminate in terms of its victims and neither do we in terms of accepting your donations.
PARKINSON’S ??
For those of you who don’t know, Parkinson’s is a progressive neurological condition which means it causes problems in the brain and gets worse over time. It affects around one person in every 500. Although there is currently no cure there are a range of medicines and treatments available to manage and treat the symptoms. The symptoms are many and varied but the most common are tremor, stiffness and slowness of movement. These three symptoms can manifest themselves in a variety of ways and also vary from individual to individual. For some it can mean speech impediments or writing difficulties or a tendency to lose one’s balance and fall over or indeed to experience the feeling that their feet are stuck to the ground, thus making slight adjustments to correct unsteadiness impossible. Often this is mistaken for drunkenness and people who have the illness are encouraged to carry a little information card explaining the common conditions and advising outsiders what the effects are and what to do for the patient if necessary.
CURE PARKINSON’S
On their own none of these are particularly distressing but when several are present at any given time it can make movement and the general pursuit of everyday life much more difficult. So the search is on to find a Cure. Apart from the effects on individual quality of life which a Cure would bring it would also free up millions of pounds currently spent in managing the conditions and providing drugs to reduce the worst of the symptoms.
NEXT WEEKEND -RED HIGH 10K
And on the running front the following Saturday sees the birth of the Red High 10K and 2 x 5K Relay beginning at 12 noon. I shouldn’t really say this but it is a relatively flat course! Honest! If you don’t believe me come and try it out and then you can make your arguments to me from a point of knowledge – though I don’t think you’ll have a leg to stand on, especially if you run it hard enough! Online entries are open at www.athleticsni.org
Joe Quinn
3 October 2016