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

The Northern Ireland Junior Mountain Running Championships 2005 will be held at Scrabo Hill next Friday evening 26 August, from 7pm. The Championships will be held over the traditional Scrabo Hill Race course with various distances for the different ages groups and the annual race for senior athletes over 3 miles with 750 feet of climb will conclude the evening?s programme of races. For Juniors there will be categories for under 20, under 18, under 16 and under 14.

Age groups refer to your age on 1 January 2005.

Hence if you are 11 on 1 Jan 2005 you run in U12,
12 or 13 on 1 Jan are U14   (born 1991 or 92)
14 or 15 on 1 Jan are U16  (born 1989 or 90)
16 or 17 on 1 Jan are U18  (born 1987 or 88)
18 or 19 on 1 Jan are U20  (born in 1985 or 86)

Br & Irish teams for champ are under 16 & under 18.
At the event in Carlingford there are also individual races for under 14.

In addition to the Scrabo races being the NI Junior Championship they will be used to help select the Northern Ireland teams for the British and Irish Junior Championships being held at Carlingford in County Louth on 9 October. Following the Scrabo races a junior squad will be identified and a series of training sessions provided by the NI Mountain Running Associations qualified coaches in preparation for the British and Irish Junior Championships.

Scrabo Course

The Scrabo course is particularly suitable for juniors as it is mainly on paths and tracks, is marked and does not contain very steep or rocky terrain unlike some of the senior championship races. The event is also ideal for runners without mountain running experience and normal road running shoes are suitable for the course. Entries will be taken on the night at the start at Scrabo Estate, off Blair Mayne Road South in Newtownards.

When approaching from Belfast on the main dual carriageway to Newtownards at the roundabout opposite Ards Centre take a right turn along Blair Mayne Rd South. At the next junction the start is 100m to the left in the square.

The route goes up Scrabo Road, then enters the country park, climbing first on a gravel track, then more steeply on a small path up the front of the hill to the tower. The descent is on a gravel path and the senior and under 20 race does a second upper lap to the summit before descending back to the start. The records for the full 3mile/750feet course are held by Robbie Bryson 19:29 set in 1989 and N Murphy 24:35 in 1992.