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

 

Weekend Review

Tue 15 February 2005 - Ian Taylor

Congratulations to all fellrunners out at the seniors, as you get race fit for the first Championship event at Sl gullion on Saturday, 5 March. The ladies were out in force, with team "City of Derry" in second place to Lagan Valley and including Hannah Shields (8th) and Martina Elliott (15th). Third team was Newcastle, with an excellent result from Kerry Harty in third place, backed up by Martina Hawkins (12th) and Claire Galbraith (16th). Hazel McCausland, running for Omagh, was in 13th position.

There were rather fewer mountain runners in the mens Senior Championship, with Eddie Hanna showing a big improvement over last season and finishing in 22nd place, just ahead of Neil Carty. The Newcastle team, in 5th place, was completed by Richard & Paul Rodgers, Gary Bailey, Stephen Cunningham and Joe McCann.

The previous weekend, at the Roe Valley Trail Race, there were also a few surprises. First mountain runner was Mark Alexander in a time of 23:36 (9th) behind winner Allan Bogle in 21:56. Richard Rodgers was 11th, Mark Kendall in 13th and Brian Ervine in 22nd place. Kerry Harty was the first lady in 30th place overall, less than a minute behind Brian. Others getting a warm up before the main season included Brendan OBoyle (26th, Bsllymena), Mark McManus (28th, Larne), Ivan Park (33rd, Pegasus), Hannah Shields (53rd), Jim Hayes (60th) and Francis Boal (63rd).

If you missed these events make sure you get to the Binevenagh race next Saturday at 12 noon. See elsewhere on this site for route details.