Wallace Park Relays

Sat 1 October 2011--admin

After a break of a couple of years the Wallace Park Relays made a return to the calendar for the 50th anniversary of the inaugural event, with City of Lisburn AC hosting the event in very wet conditions today in Lisburn.

The numbers of teams were modest for the headline event but the Perpetual Trophy for the Mens 3 x 2 lap (ie 3 x 2.2k approx) went to City of Derry Spartans, who were well clear of City of Lisburn AC in 2nd and City of Derry Spartans Masters in 3rd. The ladies’ team event over the same distance was won by host club City of Lisburn AC from Ballyclare High School with Newry AC in 3rd.
The winning Derry team comprised Patrick Hamilton (6:48) Connor Bradley who with 6:09 had the fastest split of the day and John Paul Williamson (6:50). The City of Lisburn AC team in 2nd included Callum Shaw (7:20), Michael McLarnon (7:29) and Jonny Whan who ran an excellent 6:57 split.
For the Lisburn ladies Courtney Sloan opened with a 7:50 split which was the fastest female split of the day and the only girl to break 8 minutes followed by Heather McLarnon with an 8:08 split and Rebecca Harvey with 8:16 for a comfortable victory.
Earlier in the day the Open 3k proved popular (full results to follow) with wins in the Senior Events for Connor Bradley of City of Derry AC and Julie Turley of Dromore. There were good runs from Lisburn’s Ruth Little (3rd Female), Dominic Martin (2nd Junior) and Peter Shaw (2nd V45).
In the 1400m race for Year 7 and 8 girls Kate Gourley won as she pleased while Olivia Savage was 8th with Sean Terek 6th and Ben Ritchie 9th in the boys’ race. In the Year 9 and 10 mixed 2.2k race Rebekah Douglas was first girl home just ahead of Madison Bowyer and Zoe Carruthers who were joint second wth Niambh Madden close behind in 5th.
A huge thank you to the many Lisburn coaches and parents who helped out with the running of the event. Thanks also to the additional volunteers such as announcer Dave McKibben and John Glover and assorted other Athletics NI officials who helped out with the results and timekeeeping.