Write a commentNewry AC may have had fewer events this week but the quality of performances outweighed quantity over track, trail and mountain.
RUN A MILE WITH MARY - BELFAST
Sarah Jane Beattie and Gary Crummy took part in the ‘Run A Mile With Mary’ at the Mary Peter’s Track, Belfast, on Friday evening.
This charity event commenced in the afternoon with family/kids fun miles and a celebrity race with Mary Peter’s in attendance. The junior and graded races followed with wheelchair and the Elite races. All proceeds were in aid of the Mary Peter’s Trust.
In the 6-7 minute graded race, Sarah Jane battled with 17 athletes to maintain and take 7th placing in a great time of 5:58:08.
Gary was entered in the highly competitive Elite group against 13 top club runners. He has had some fantastic track performances in his debut season and this event proved another success. The race took off hard and fast and Gary adopted a good race position which he maintained and was able to take third place in a great time of 4:28:29.
ROSTREVOR PARKRUN, KILBRONEY FOREST PARK
3 of the Patterson family and Sarah Jane Beattie attended the Rostrevor Parkrun on Saturday morning. Ethan Patterson blasted round the challenging course to take 1st position in 20:00; Ryan Patterson followed in 8th place with a time of 23:24; Sarah Jane Beattie after a fast mile run in Belfast the night before was still able to zoom around Kilbroney Forest to take 9th overall, 1st female place in a time of 23:28; Myles Patterson followed through in 19th with a time of 27:09.
SLIEVE DONARD MOUNTAIN RACE, NEWCASTLE
On Saturday morning Esther Dickson, Rory Mulvaney and Warren Cartmill joined 164 runners in the annual Slieve Donard Race. This was a 6.2 mile race with 2,800 feet of ascent - the route started and finished at the Newcastle Centre and took the runners through Donard Forest, up the Glen Valley river to the saddle where they then ascended Slieve Donard, at the summit descent was via Thomas Quarry returning through the Forest to the finish. The weather was perfect - warm and dry but ground conditions were wet and slippery in sections after the rain, hail and snow during the week.
Esther Dickson had an impressive run finishing 1st female (11 minutes ahead of the 2nd female, Mari Troeng) and 10th overall. This was a very strong performance by Esther who currently leads the NIMRA and Hill & Dales 2019 series, proven by the fact that she had the 4th overall fastest descent from the Summit to the finish line of 19:29.
Rory Mulvaney continued his consistently strong mountain performances finishing in 13th overall position in a time of 1:06:09 and again an impressive descent time of 20:38.
Warren Cartmill finished in 31st placing with a time 1:13:40 and lifted 2nd place in the MV45 category.
ORIENTEERING - INTERNATIONAL SELECTION
Congratulations from the club to Meadow McCauley, who has been selected to represent in the Irish Orienteering Squad at the European Youth Orienteering Championships to be held in Belarus at the end of June.
