Race 5 of McGrady Financial Services Junior XC Series 2013/14

Not Dry in Delamont.
By The Non-Runner

Race 5 Results
Photos by Graham McCauley

Due to a major oversight in the annual leave booking system, all of the usual suspects of Newcastle AC’s regular registration team were absent. Obviously the manager wasn’t paying sufficient attention to the staff leave request forms and just let them off-or maybe we can excuse him as he was away with his family seeing Mickey and Minnie….”Hot Dog!” (erm apparently that’s Mickey’s catchphrase, according to a well known internet search engine…)
Whatever the reasons, we are very grateful to those who stepped in to help with the registration. Not an easy task, as the volunteers may have found out!
It was wet and dreary morning for our final XC of this series. Many brave souls made the journey to the picturesque setting of Delamont Country Park to represent their clubs in our very popular races.
Thanks as ever to Joe, Frank and others from our host club for this race, East Down AC. Thanks also to Brian of Burren AC for his usual skilful compere talents in rallying the troops for each race via microphone.
There seems to have been a bit of a mishap regarding the first race and some juniors missed out on running. We hope that the juniors, and their parents, can understand this was a one-off accidental error and we send our apologies for any inconvenience to those people involved.

And so on to the results.
P4 and under boys was a very close finish but the victor was James McVeigh of NAC, closely followed by Noah Sheridan NAC and Jack Dornan EDAC. P4 and under girls race was won by Anna Gardiner EDAC, second was Aoife Monaghan of our guest club 3 Ways AC and third was Laura Hanna of NAC.
P5 boys was won by Mackenzie Murray EDAC, second was Brian Watters 3 Ways AC and third was Michael O’Connor EDAC. P5 girls winner was Lara McCarthy Burren AC, second Caitlin Valentine NAC, third was Kate McCartan of Dromore AC.
P6 boys winner was Ronan McVeigh of NAC, (yes folks it’s a family affair, Ronan’s brother was the P4 winner, watch out for news of their sister Catherine later in this report!), second was Naoise O’Hagan EDAC and third was Adam Hughes of NAC. P6 girls winner was Caitlin Coffey followed by Olivia Hall, both from 3 Ways AC. Third place was Izzy O’Farrell of Burren AC.
P7 boys had only 3 entrants and they finished with Matthew Boville Dromore AC in first place with Andrew McGrattan EDAC in second and Oran Cunningham EDAC in third place. P7 girls winner was our Eve Kenneally, Eve has also qualified for NI Primary Schools XC finals at Mallusk as the top individual. Second place went to Maeve Murdock Burren AC and third was Natasha Savage of EDAC. Catherine McVeigh was 4th girl in P7 race, this is worthy of a mention as Catherine has also qualified for NI Primary Schools XC Finals in Mallusk. Well done to our Eve and Catherine!
Year 8 boys had just two runners and first place went to Oisin Coffey 3 Ways AC and second was Aidan McCauley of NAC. Year 8 girls was won by Edie Carroll EDAC with Eabha Campbell NAC taking second place, third went to Kiara Cairns NAC.
Year 9 boys winner was Jack Matthews 3 Ways AC, Owen Edwards EDAC second and Sean Watters 3 Ways was third place. Year 9 girls had just 3 entrants with first place going to Anna Lynn EDAC, second was Lucy Kenneally NAC, Gemma Doyle 3 Ways AC was third.

Tough competition in Year 10 boys race, winner was Ethan Dunn Dromore AC, leading Malachai McAvoy and Billy Campbell both from Burren AC. Year 10 girls had 5 runners, all from EDAC. Winner was Laura Green, second was Aoife Cochrane and third was Elisha Surginor.
Year 11+ boys was won by Daniel Dawson of Dromore AC, second was Caolan Atkinson EDAC and third place went to Paraic Delahunt Burren AC. Year 11+ girls was won by Laura Gardiner EDAC, second was Eilis Doyle NAC and third was Niamh Doyle NAC.

Thanks to our junior NAC runners and to the junior runners from East Down, Burren and Dromore AC. Also we were delighted to have 3 Ways AC attending as guests. We send our thanks to all of you who have participated in any, or all of our series. Well done to each and every one of you, we are always delighted to have so many young people entering our races. We hope you have enjoyed your experience and well done for crossing the finish line to bring home team points.
Thanks also to our very generous sponsor, McGrady Financial Services.
Watch this space for our presentation night, who will be the winning boys and girls team?? Who will pick up the prizes for individual runners? Can you bear the excitement???!

Hill and Dale Junior events will be upon us very soon, in the meantime we have East Down’s ever popular Rollercoaster Races on Saturday 1st February. Can I recommend staying on to watch the big people doing their run. But rather them than me….hence the pseudonym…Always very entertaining to watch the seniors run past the spectators 3 times as they do their laps. Loads of chances to clap shout your support.