Edwards and Co Meet 5

Sat 20 August 2011--admin

Thursday night’s final Edwards and Co meet of the season, promoted by Lagan Valley AC at the MPT, proved to be the most successful of the series for City of Lisburn AC in terms of the medal tally won (30). Many athletes took the chance to fine-tune preparatons for this weekend’s multi-events champs while the Lisburn junior squad have every incentive to stay sharp with the forthcoming trip to the UK Young Athletes League Final in Birmingham.

In the U11 “mini” age-group there was enough talent on display to suggest that the success of the Young Athletes League squad should continue as many of these athletes move up next year. In the 150m sprints Ben Gibson won with Josh Patterson in 3rd while Grace Hillman’s 22.24s for silver in the girls’ race would have won the boys’ event. In the 600m races Ben was 3rd with Kate Gourley taking a fine silver in her race. In the shot Olivia Savage had a win here earlier in the season but had to settle for a silver this time out.

The U13 squad had some strong individual performances, with Bradley Mulholland claiming a bronze in the 200m and hurdles specialist Therese Hillman just missing a medal with a useful 2:53 for 4th in the 800m. However it was in the field events where the Lisburn athletes excelled. Phoebe Tan won the Long Jump with a 4.25m PB which puts her top of the N.Ireland rankings in both long and high jumps at U13 this season. Matthew Robinson won the discus with a 19.44m PB and missed a medal in the javelin by a mere 1cm. In the javelin Sarah Woods threw a final round PB of 17.64m to clinch bronze ahead of Alix Galbraith who threw a 17.38m PB of her own. In the discus Sarah had a massive PB to throw over 20m for the first time – a 20.36m effort which puts her on top of the local rankings for this event while Alix in 3rd also improved nearly 5 metres from her previous best to take bronze with 19.13m.

The Lisburn U15 girls squad is exceptional this year, with a number competing here with great success. They took a clean sweep of the medals in the 200m with Megan Marrs having a winning debut over the distance in a fine 27.6s. Katie Larmour in 2nd was just outside her best with Jessica McMaster’s 28.63s in 3rd also a PB. In the shot it was a similar story with all-round throws star Natalja Ritchie winning with 7.96m. Behind her there were some very encouraging performances by a few of the girls who were preparing for the pentathlon on Sunday. Katie Larmour threw a fantastic 7.76m for 2nd, Jessica McMaster threw 7.00m for 3rd just ahead of Megan Marrs in 4th (6.98m). Jessica also won a silver in the long jump with 4.71m while Zoe Carruthers was 3rd in the 800m, a fraction outside 2:30. For the boys, Callum McLaughlin was back in form with a 5.34m win in the long jump. Ahmed Elmola threw a 10.89m PB for second in the shot while Jonny Whan was 3rd in the 800m in 2:18.0.

The U17 category saw success for Stewart McEwan who won the 200m in 24.72s. Amanda Mitchell was 2nd in the discus with 23.55s with Ruth Hewlett 3rd.

In the Senior events Caris Greenwood won her discus event with Tom Jess making it a Lisburn double, while Adam Hill won the triple jump. Kathryn Wallace made a rare outing on the track to take bronze in the 200m.

Thank you to Lagan Valley AC for a wonderful series again which blooded a lot of new talent and provided welcome competition for our next generation of athletes in N. Ireland. We’re already looking forward to next year!