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

 

Seven Sevens Grand Prix

Sat 4 August 2007 - Ian Taylor

The Seven Sevens Race is being held tomorrow, Saturday 4 August from Donard Park at 10 am.  This is the longest race in our calendar, 18.9 miles with 8775 feet of ascent.  Each year this tough challenge is becoming more popular, with 56 participants in last years event.  There is also an associated walk over the same course starting from 7 am onwards.  The event counts towards the Grand Prix series so this provides an opportunity for endurance specialists to enhance your score compared to other competitors.  Route information is provided elsewhere on this web site (ignore the date in that info which refers to a previous year).  This race, alon with Slieve Foye on 1 September, provides good preparation for the Mourne Mountain Marathon on 15th/16th September.

Last year the winners came from outside NI, with the fast local competitor being Don Travers in 4:35:38.  The male record was set by Gary Bailey in 2004 in a time of 3:54:10, in an extremely tight race in which Brian Ervine finished two seconds behind.  The ladies record is a little softer, with Roisin McDonnell setting a new record of 5:59:08 in 2006.

This race is the ninth in the 11 race Grand Prix series in which the best six results count. In such a series spread over the whole year and using races over all of NI, consistency performances count highly.  Hence it is no surprise that the current leader is Richard Cowan on 570 points, some way ahead of Sam Herron on 512 points and Andy Gregg on 511.  However Deon McNeilly has 496 points on 5 races and Raymond Ferguson has 438 points, also on 5 races.  Billy McKay is first vet50 on 413 points, Dave Bell is Vet45 leader on 404 points and Joim Patterson heads the vet60 category on 343 points.

Amongst the ladies, Anne Sandford leads on 379 points, Fiona Maxwell has 340, Caroline Pollard has 260 & Tish McCann has 247.

Grand Prix Summary				Total	Count	Best 6
Cowan	Richard	Willowfield	Male Open	660	7	570
Herron	Sam	Mourne Runners	Male Open	512	6	512
Gregg	Andy	Larne AC	Male O40	511	6	511
Mcneilly	Deon	Newcastle AC	Male O40	496	5	496
Watson	Neville	Barf	Male Open	495	7	447
Ferguson	Raymond	North Belfast Harriers	Male Open	438	5	438
Alexander	Mark	Ballymena Runners	Male Open	419	5	419
Bailey	Clive	Mourne Runners	Male Open	418	5	418
Steede	Jonny	Ballymena Runners	Male Open	416	5	416
Mckay	Billy	Albertville	Male O50	413	5	413
Bell	David	Mourne Runners	Male O45	424	7	404
Woods	Dessie	Mourne Runners	Male O40	395	4	395
Cunningham	Stephen	Mourne Runners	Male Open	391	4	391
Travers	Don	Armagh AC	Male Open	385	4	385
Carty	Neil	North Belfast Harriers	Male O40	384	4	384
Bailey	Gary	Mourne Runners	Male Open	382	4	382
Sandford	Anne	Newcastle AC	Female vet	379	6	379
McCullough	Cecil	Mourne Runners	Male O45	373	5	373
Kingston	Gerry	BARF	Male O40	356	5	356
Shevlin	Jason	Armagh AC	Male Open	353	5	353
Wilson	Jason	Pegasus AC	Male Open	353	4	353
McGreevy	Dominic	Ballydrain Harriers	Male O50	352	4	352
Mallon	Paddy	BARF	Male O40	345	4	345
Patterson	Jim	Mourne Runners	Male O60	343	4	343
Bradley	Patrick	Newcastle AC	Male O35	342	5	342
Maxwell	Fiona	Mourne Runners	Female vet	340	4	340
Muldoon	Padraig	Armagh AC	Male O40	340	4	340
Ewart	Dave	BARF	Male Open	325	4	325
Wells	Barry	Newcastle AC	Male O40	315	4	315
Hanna	Mark	Mourne Runners	Male O35	298	4	298
Bridge	Andy	Barf	Male O40	292	6	292
McNeilly	David	Newcastle AC	Male Open	281	3	281
Bell	Peter	Pegasus AC	Male O50	275	4	275
Cowan	Ricky	Willowfield	Male O55	270	5	270
Mckeown	Gareth	Barf	Male O40	270	4	270
McCrickard	Eamon	Newcastle AC	Male O40	269	3	269
Spence	Brian	Larne AC	Male O45	268	6	268
Pollard	Caroline	Barf	Female O45	260	5	260
Hughes	Sean	Glens Runners	Male O40	256	3	256
Mcelroy	Declan	Newcastle AC	Male O40	250	4	250
Smith	Dale	Larne AC	Male Open	249	4	249
Mccann	Tish	Mourne Runners	Female O40	247	4	247
Marks	William	Mourne Runners	Male Open	244	3	244
Barton	Mike	Mourne Runners	Male O50	240	4	240
Rankin	Barry	Mourne Runners	Male O45	237	5	237
Pollard	Steve	Barf	Male O45	215	5	215
Ooyle	Neal	Larne AC	Male Open	214	5	214
Muldoon	Cormac	Armagh AC	Male O45	212	4	212
McMahon	Rowan	Team Purple	Male Open	210	3	210
Rea	Norma	Barf	Female Open	207	4	207
Campbell	Richard	Mourne Runners	V35	203	3	203
Wilson	Tim	Unattached	O	198	3	198
Shannon	Alwynne	Newcastle AC	LV45	193	3	193
Hanna	Richard	Mourne Runners	O	184	3	184
Hambling	Stephanie	North Down AC	LV35	182	5	182
Mccann	CHRIS	Mourne Runners	Male Veteran 45	182	3	182
OBoyle	Brendan	Larne AC	MJ	170	3	170
Glenn	Nat	Larne AC	Male veteran 40	168	2	168
Mcgibbon	Andrew	BARF	Male Open	162	3	162
Taylor	Ian	BARF	Male O55	158	3	158
OHagan	Brendan	Team Purple	V50	147	3	147
Lockington	Ian	BARF	O	146	3	146
Wilson	Trevor	BARF	V45	142	3	142
Pruzina	Mark	BARF	V40	128	3	128
White	Seamus	Newcastle AC	V45	93	3	93