NI Road Relay Champs – Silver for CoL Senior Ladies
Tue 9 October 2012--admin
Saturday saw the NI Senior Road Relay championships return to Victoria Park, Belfast where Orangegrove AC were excellent hosts once again. City of Lisburn AC had a very healthy turn-out of six teams in total, spread across the various categories.
Senior Ladies
The team of Judith Lowry, Ruth Little and Erin McIlveen put up a valiant defence of their title won here last year but ultimately had to concede the win to North Belfast Harriers. Judith Lowry’s 11:33 split was the 2nd-fastest of the day (behind Dromore’s Julie Turkey with 11:27) and she passed on to Ruth Little (12:39) and Erin McIlveen (12:48) with the ladies finishing a clear 2nd but behind the fast-finishing Gladys Ganiel-O’Neill of NBH.
Masters Ladies
The Masters “A” team of Diane Watson, Grainne Keenan and Mel Minshull all ran well and were unfortunate to just miss out on a medal, finishing 4th in a very competitive category. Diane had a stormer on leg one with 13:41 followed by Grainne’s 14:50 and Mel’s 14:05.
The Masters “B” team of Sharon Kelly (15:17), Tracey Ritchie (19:26) and Paula Neill (15:00) all did well and enjoyed their afternoon, finishing in 12th place overall.
Senior Men
In the mens’ 4×2 mile race the CoL Senior team consisted of Chris Madden (11:01), Johnny Hooper (10:57), Jonny Whan (12:05) and Callum Shaw (11:57), with the squad running well to finish in 9th place overall.
Masters Men
The club was also able to field two Masters teams. The “A” team of Dave Lonnen (11:20), Trevor Carruthers (13:58), Sean McGurnaghan (13:14) and Graham Neill (14:08) finished 13th in the Masters’ section.
The “B” squad were led off by Paul McCullough’s excellent 12:18 and he was followed by Andrew Watson with 14:30, Eric Frizzell’s 14:39 and Jonny McWhinney (15:27) with the squad finishing 17th.
After fielding just one team at this event in 2011 it was great to see six teams in action this time in what was a most enjoyable afternoon’s racing. Well done to all and especially Team Manager / Coach Eric on getting everyone organised for the day.