Moira XC race report
Tue 14 January 2014--admin
Last Saturday’s races turned out to be a great day’s competition for CoLAC athletes young and a bit older at Moira cross-country annual outing hosted by City of Lisburn AC. The weather was just above freezing but sunny, the winding park course was soft and muddy in places and around 1500m per lap in length.
The first race was for Primary P6 and P7 pupils which took place over a shortened course, approximately 1000m long. The entry of around fifty girls and boys settled down after a fast start and the field soon strung out after 400m with Peter Terek, Josh Ritchie and Anna Hill to the fore and the rest of Lisburn runners spread throughout the field. The finish saw Josh Ritchie (4th) come in ahead of team mates Peter Terek (5th) and Anna Hill (6th). Anna was the first girl home. A bit further back CoLAC runners Lauren Patterson (27th), Jack McCausland (30th), Ella Armstrong (32nd), Holly Winters (33rd) and finally Olivia McCrea (40th) all ran well to complete the course.
The Year 8 race had only fifteen entries but turned out to be a very competitive race with all athletes finishing within one minute fifteen seconds of one another. Josh Patterson of CoLAC won the race in 5m19s with Alex McCrea six seconds behind in third place. Olivia Neill and Susie Loan finished within one second of each other with Olivia getting a medal for fourth girl and Susie for fifth girl.
The Year 9 and 10 athletes had to experience 3000m of heavy tough going as the course had started to deteriorate. First home, well clear of the rest of the field was Jake Harbinson in 9m 52s over a minute ahead of the next runner. Next, in fourth place was Callum Morris followed by first girl Olivia Nelson of CoLAC in fifth position, with Matthew Neill, Conor Irving and Sean Terek all close behind. Ben Ritchie (14th) Rebecca Warnock (17th) and Aimee Bradley (18th) all collected medals, Sarah Ferris finished in (20th) and finally for CoLAC, Roybn Patton (24th).
The under 18’s race where the boys had to cover 3 laps and the girls 2 laps saw Sophie Higginson racing to the line to finish second beating North Belfast runner Catney into third place. James Edgar, demonstrated his strength and ability covering the ground with ease to win the boys race comfortably in 14m12s. Dominic Martin (400m runner) found the going difficult but fought well to finish in twelfth.
The women’s senior race was an experience for both Mel Minshull and Paula Neill having never competed in cross-country before. Both, where delighted with their performance with Mel (9th) first home in the O40 category, and Paula in (15th).
The Men’s races was over four laps (6000m). The course was well and truly cut up by now and posed a bit of a problem to some of the athletes. Chris Madden, first home for CoLAC had to settle for fifth position as he had a bad fall and winded himself and had to settle for fifth. Stephen Morris (3rd O40), new to cross-country finished well up also struggled in the conditions underfoot. Team Captain Declan Morgan enjoyed the tough conditions to finish in 40th while new club member Geoff Turkington really excelled in his first race for Lisburn and finish 58th. Deciding to run at the last minute, now that the organisation of the races had run smoothly (big thanks to all the club members assisting and making it a great day). Eric Frizzell ran for the first time in over a year finishing in 62nd place. Barry Morris 72nd place, used the race as a training run and really enjoyed the occasion. Final thanks, to club president Glenn Grant (Championchip Ireland) for his support and sponsoring the event. Two hundred participants, 39 CoLAC athletes, 14 prizes won and 11 Colac Helpers all combined to make it a memorable day.