East Down AC weekly report for seniors and juniors
• Senior Report – Hill and Dale/ Night of 3000m Mary Peters Track
Thursday night saw race 7 of the Hill and Dale series.
James Cuffey was the only EDAC runner to take on the warm conditions the runners made their way through the forest trails to Millstone summit which sits below Donard before heading off to Donard quarry and the fast down hill chase to the finish writes Martin Willcox.
James came home in 36th position in a time of 44 min 59 sec. James seems to prefer the open mountain then the parts of the race that were on trails, another strong performance again from James.
Friday saw Annadale Striders night of 3000 metres held at Dame Mary Peters Track. This brings together the best middle distance track runners from around N Ireland, the evening is made up of six 3000 metres races, two ladies and four men all at different standards.
With very warm conditions Adam Withers who seems to prefer the track was first up in race 2. With a fast pace set from the gun Adam tried to hang on to the lead pack and came 6th in a time 9min 32sec.
Race 4 saw Cathrine O’Connor back on the track after last week’s success on the road, with a top quality field Catherine fought her way to 4th position in 9min 56sec.
Last to take to the Track in Race 5 was Neil McCarten who has been quiet of late and will have been happy to get back racing.
With a very top quality field the race from the start was set at a high tempo and Neil crossed the line in 8min 37sec and 10th position out of 15 runners.
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Junior Report – Anna Gardiner Senior Girls 3000m All- Irelands.
On Saturday morning Tullamore Harriers AC in Co Offaly hosted the all Ireland schools track and field athletics Championship writes coach Peter Morgan.
Our own Anna Gardiner was representing her school Assumption Grammar Ballynahinch, and she qualified for this via the distract and Ulster schools so the quality was always going to be of a high standard due to the provincial qualifiers and winners.
Tullamore was in glorious sun which is great for the sprinters, not so good for the long distance runners.
The senior girls 3000m went off at 10:15am and Anna took to the front from the gun, fresh from a new PB over the distance in May at the Belfast Irish Milers it was going to be hard to get to those levels with senior women across Ireland and UK pulling her around.
Three other girls latched onto the back of Anna and used her as a pacer, probably hoping she would tire and take advantage later on in the race.
Anna’s determination was something they were not aware of as two of the hangers-on were dropped with two laps remaining only one girl remained hanging onto the fast pace which Anna had set from the off.
A slight gap appeared with 500m to go and it looked inevitable that Anna would take the honours today.
She took the line with her nearest competitor about 20m behind her making Anna the new All Ireland 3000m schools Champion, this bodes well for the summer of racing ahead, well done Anna Gardiner.
