Northern Ireland Mountain Running Association
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Donard Commedagh Championship 10 May

Sun 11 May 2003 - Ian Taylor

This third Championship race was led from the start by Deon McNeilly, with Neil Carty close behind. With the route supposedly over the 1999 Br Championship course Deon took the latter route rather than that described carefully by the race organiser, Mike Barton at the start. The only loser was unfortunately Mike, as he tried and failed to get the leaders to come back to his course. At the quarry it was clear that it was not likely to make any difference, with Deon reaching Donard in 37.5 minutes, followed by Neil, David McNeilly, Robert Neill and Damian Branigan. In the fast descent off Shan Slieve Damian showed superior descending speed to gain third place behind Deon and Neil. Both Damian and Neil improved on their 1999 times by almost a couple of minutes. Alex Brennan then led in a trio of Ballymena runners, giving them second team prize behind Newcastle. First lady was Sharon McBurney, also of Ballymena, in 24 th place overall.

Speaking of ladies, it was nice to see our injured pair, Shileen O?Kane and Barbara Brown, making it to the top of Donard as marshals while also injured Brian Ervine was able to jog around Donard Park. In the field itself John Adgey returned from injury and indeed improved on his 1999 time by 12 minutes.

After three Championship races, Deon is ahead in the Open category (90 points), followed by Neil (86), David (81), Robert (78), Damian (77) and Richard (70), counting only those who have done three races. In the vet men?s categories, Deon leads the vet40, followed by David Bell (83 points), vet45: Francis O?Hagan (90), Peter Howie (87), vet50: Ricky Cowan has 87 points but Billy McKay has a maximum of 60 from two races. In the vet55 group Jim Patterson leads on 90, followed by Billy Magee (87), John Adgey (83). In the ladies Sharon McBurney has 90 with Alwyn Shannon on 86. All points are subject to checking and may still be amended by new members rejoining.

Full Results