Northern Ireland Mountain Running Association
www.nimra.org.uk

 

Championship Preview

Fri 19 August 2005 - Ian Taylor

The final Championship race of the season takes place at Rostrevor on Saturday at 12 noon, starting from the upper car park.  The race takes place over three laps (senior men) or two laps (ladies & juniors), with the route described elsewhere on this site.  The course is expected to be marked and marshalled.

The current championship points are available on this web site, showing results after the first five races.  Currently 17 members have completed the championship.  However a further 13 athletes could complete it if they race on Saturday.  In addition about 5 non members could complete the series if they race at Rostrevor & also pay a NIMRA membership.

The mens title will be decided on Saturday between Deon McNeilly on 198 points and Neil Carty on 197.  For either to improve their score they have to win!  If Neil wins and Deon is second or lower, Neil & Deon will tie on 198 points.  Of course Alan McKibben is fresh from a victory at Lurig and may  wish to demonstrate that he can also win over a longer course.

In the ladies section Anne Sandford has had the title since the previous race as not enough ladies have completed the series.  Our much more competitive season for ladies is not reflected in the championship results. In the veteran mens categories, Deon is well ahead in the vet40s, but Billy McKay could catch Jim Patterson.  In the vet45 group, Jim Brown is the first genuine 45 - 50 athlete, Billy McKay in the same position at vet50 and Jim Patterson naturally leads the vet55 group.  The vet60 group is now becoming more popular but both Billy Magee and John Adgey have to appear to complete the series.


Last year we introduced a team series with the overall winning team being Newcastle.  This year its not quite so clear cut with newcomers ACKC becoming stronger over the season and indeed taking first place on the two long races.  The results, for the four teams that have completed four or more races are

1  Newcastle - 1,1,1,2    total 5
2  ACKC  - 2,2,1,1  total 6
3 Larne - 6, 3,3,4  total 16
4  BARF  5,4,4,4  total  17

Armagh could also completed the series and indeed finish ahead of BARF (and even Larne) if they put out a strong team for Saturday andfinish 3rd team or better.