Antrim Int’l XC / Ciara’s Record Mile in NYC
Sun 23 January 2011--admin
Greenmount College was the venue on Saturday for the McCain Antrim International Cross-Country, giving our local athletes the opportunity to race against some international opposition, while the junior age-group races also featured many good quality visitors from outside the province.
In the Senior Women’s Race over 5600m, Rachel Gibson toed the line alongside GB star Charlotte Purdue and Kenyan Esther Chemtai amongst others. Rachel gave a good account of herself, finishing in 28th place overall and ahead of a number of good local athletes. Nigel Hart was City of Lisburn’s only representative in the Male Masters’ race finishing 29th and 9th M45.
In the junior races, Kate Gourley had her third race inside a week but still pulled off a great victory in the Primary Schools Race. She just held off a visitor from Dublin, with both athletes being awarded the same time. This fine win by the promising Kate now means she is undefeated in cross-country races within the Province this season.
There was more silverware for Lisburn from the Under 13 girls race over 1800m, where the team of Madison Bowyer (6th), Zoe Carruthers (7th) and Rebekah Douglas in 12th were just pipped by Dundrum South Dublin for top team prize but still received attractive plaques for their 2nd place. They were well backed up by Natalie Fair in 21st. Enda Kelly-McCann was well up the field in the boys’ U13 race over the same distance, finishing in 21st place.
Junior club captains Rebecca Harvey and Jonathan Whan both raced well in the Under 15 events over 3600m. Rebecca was 11th in her race while Jonathan was 20th in the boys’ event.
Meanwhile, congratulations to Ciara Mageean on another Irish junior record, this time over one mile on her 2011 indoor debut in New York over the weekend. Her 4:38.41 took over 3 seconds off the previous record. She also clocked 4:17.0 at 1500m which respresents new Irish Junior indoor record figures at this distance, meaning the European Indoor qualification mark of 4:13 should hopefully be within reach.