NORTH DOWN FESTIVAL OF CROSS COUNTRY RELAY RACES
What’s got 8 hairy legs, though is otherwise next to hairless, breathes heavily under pressure and is 275 years old? No, it’s not a prehistoric tarantula, though the similarity is striking. It is in fact the East Down (Old?) Masters Relay team which took to the line in Saturday’s Cross Country Relay races in Bangor. Under the pseudonym the Young Ones, the aim was to put the young whippersnappers in their places – and so they did too – the fact that those places were all ahead of them is neither here nor there. Suffice to say that the fearsome foursome are mature enough to know their places.
This is a novel event, having been staged last year for the first time, and it attracted considerable interest from many, mostly Down and Belfast based clubs, this year. The Ladies race teams consisted of 3 athletes, each running 2 laps of a 1300 metres circuit, a total of 1.6 miles. Not a lot you might think but, given a steep hill, very muddy underfoot conditions and numerous sharp twists and turns with the odd bottomless quagmire eagerly waiting an excuse to remove your shoe should you fail to clench your toes, then it was a tough enough test. The men had teams of 4, with each running 2 laps.
FOSTER CARE?
The P6/7 Girls race was the first race of the day, an individual event over a 1K distance and East Down’s Lucy Foster was prominent throughout holding on well to claim 2nd place with her sister Jodi in 5th, a splendid effort.
Not to be outdone the girls mother Joanne, ran the first leg of the Relay for the East Down Masters Ladies team, with Clare Carson on the 2nd and Niamh Kellett on the anchor leg. Their overall time of 36.07 gave them an overall placing of 10th out of 22 teams, and 5th overall in the Masters category.
East Down also fielded a Male Open team, comprising Paul Burns who was using it as a warm up exercise for his birthday celebrations later in the day, Davy Foster, Mark O’Connor and Martin Wilcox and they should be pleased with placing 9th team out of 23 overall, though if they had entered the Master’s category, they would have been 3rd placed team.
Anyway back to the Young Ones, comprising Brian Hamilton, Tom Dowey, the baby of the quartet at a mere 62 years, Robert Miskelly, making his debut over the grass and the proud owner of 3 score and 15 years, and myself.
I followed the advice of former Olympian, Maeve Kyle, in deciding the running order. Her philosophy was always to run the fastest runner first in order to put your team in the race. Hence our running order was based on the fastest to the slowest runner. And it worked out well, resulting in a cumulative total time of 59.29, 23rd place overall, and 11th in the Masters category. Other clubs will be trembling in their trainers now as this new group can only get better!
NI and ULSTER INDOOR CHAMPIONSHIPS AT MAGHERAFELT
Nineteen of the Club’s juniors made the long journey to Magherafelt on Saturday for the NI and Ulster Indoor Championships and tackled a variety of events, many for the first time and with a fair degree of success.
U12 GIRLS
Anna Gardiner was 5th in 60m heat and 10th of 37 competitors in the 600m time trials. A splendid effort from one of ur youngest competitors.
U13 GIRLS
The most successful individual on the day was Lauren Madine who was 8th in 60m final having qualified 2nd in her heat, but won the Silver medal in 600m time trial after winning her heat and proved her versatility by also winning the Silver medal in Long Jump.
U14 BOYS
Mackenzie Murray as ever performed well taking 8th place out of 15 in the 800m time trial while Declan Hampton was 4th in his 60m heat and narrowly missed qualification for the final. He also tried his hand at the Long Jump.
U15 GIRLS
Lucy Morgan, Annie McMullan, Cora Fitzsimmons-West and Aimee McCloy all competed in the 69m sprints and Louise Lundy tried out the High Jump and combined with the first three to show promise later in the Relay.
U15 BOYS
Ben Carson and Jack Carson and Matthew Loudon and Andrew McGrattan all competed in the 60m with the first mentioned pair taking part in the 800m and joined Matthew to compete in the Long Jump.
U16 GIRLS
It was very much a Team performance in the 800 metres with Edie Carroll showing a welcome return to form, setting a new pb of 2.27.36 which was good enough to take the Bronze medal, less than 2 seconds behind the winner, with Aoife and Caitlin Burke in 11th and 12th respectively in the same race.
Newcomer Chelsea McCabe was unlucky in the 60m, narrowly missing the final after finishing 2nd in her heat and was another to prove her versatility by taking 7th in the Long Jump.
U/18 BOYS AND GIRLS
Ella Carroll ran well to take 5th in 400m final while Matthew McGrattan was a little unlucky not to pick up a medal in the 400m Final where despite improving his 2nd place time in his heat from 55.93 to 55.10 he had to settle for 4th .
But well done to all the juniors who travelled and to the coaches and parents who accompanied them. The day was all about giving the children experience in a totally different environment and it certainly did that.
AMAZING PERFORMANCES IN VICTORIA PARK
On Sunday morning the remarkable Foster family turned out in force in the Victoria Park charity races organised to support the Belfast Tandem Cycling Group. Kirsti and Lucy completed the 5K in 20.50 and 21.33, Jodi in 23.48, while Kari accompanied her mum Joanne in 30.00 minutes.
However the most eyecatching result was Davy’s time of 38.30 alongside a certain Bill Foster in the 71-75 age category. It turns out that Bill is Davy’s father and therefore the girls grandfather. He is also blind and a keen cyclist and he sounds just like the sort of person we would love to have in EDAC. Certainly he qualifies not only on age grounds for our Young Ones Team but also on speed grounds.
Joe Quinn
6 February 2017
CATHERINE (KATE) HANNA RIP
It was with deep sadness that we heard of the death last week of Catherine Hanna, beloved mother of our dedicated coach Sinead and grandmother of our leading junior members Caolin and Daniel Atkinson. Kate, as she was known, had been bravely fighting illness for several years. She will be sorely missed by Kevin, her husband of nearly 50 years, her daughter Sinead, her three sons Finbar, Michael and Stephen and her brothers and sisters. Kate was a woman of deep faith like her mother before her and those beliefs sustained her throughout her life and in her last years. As was recalled in her funeral tribute she called a spade a spade and told it like it was and there were no back doors with Kate. It is with certainty then that I know that she will have entered heaven by the front door.
The officers and members of East Down AC wish to express to her husband Kevin, Sinead and her partner Barrie, Caolin and Daniel and all her family members, their sincere condolences at their heart breaking loss and assure them of their continuing prayers and support.