by Joe McCann.
Barriers are no obstacle as Harty claims Irish 3000m Steeplechase title

Harty wins maiden Irish outdoor title
At the Irish Track & Field Championships last weekend in Santry Stadium in Dublin, Newcastle AC’s Kerry Harty led the race from the gun to tape to win her first Outdoor Irish Track title. Despite not running her fastest of the season (she has already set 5 Northern Ireland records – 4 Steeplechase and one over 5000m) and she did what she had to do to win the title which adds to her 3000m Irish Indoor title from earlier this year. Kerry’s time of 10:23 was well below her best (10:08), but she had 39 seconds to spare over second placed athlete, Elizabeth Egan of Bree AC. Her final Steeplechase event of the season is in two weeks time in Birmingham at the BMC final.

Junior News Woodies DIY Juvenile Irish Track and Field Championships
Well done to Ciara Gibson and Patrick Sheridan who both competed in the Woodies DIY Irish Juvenile Track and Field Championships in Tullamore. On day 1 Ciara competed in the U15 girls’ 100m event. Following lots of block start training Ciara was 2nd out of the blocks in her heat. She held onto 2nd place until 40m to go when she was overtaken and unfortunately did not make the final. Her heat time was a very respectable 13.86. On Day 3 Patrick competed in the U15 boys’ 1500m event. In a very tough race Patrick finished in 10th place in a time of 4:42.29. Well done also to Niamh, Eilis, Catriona & Aidan Doyle and Daniel Molloy who took part in the Lisburn Aquathon on Sunday 31st July. The event was a 200m swim followed by a 1200m run. All are also members of Lecale swim club. The next event for the juniors will be the Killyleagh Road races on Friday 26th August. There is always a great atmosphere in the village, with plenty of support and encouragement for the athletes.

Portaferry 10 Mile Road Race
Newcastle Athletics Club members have certainly been busy racing over the last few weeks. At the Portaferry 10 mile road run on Tuesday 19th July, Brendan Quail and Anne Sandford both showed excellent form. Brendan was 10th male open and 20th overall in a time of 62:23m and Anne was 1st FV45 (8th female overall) in 72.29 and 78th overall out of a field of 271 which included relay runners.

Slieve Martin Dash
Dominic McGreevy, Eugene McCann and Richard Bell competed in the recent Slieve Martin Dash, which rather disappointingly only attracted a field of 28 athletes. The race took the traditional route from village centre, into the park, up the road to the upper car park, onto the zigzags to the top of Slieve Martin. From the top it was down the path traditionally associated with the Hill and Dale race, doubling back to the upper car park, finishing on the grass near the camp site. The main group stuck together until they approached the upper car park. At this point Dominic and Maurice Harte began to open a gap on the others.

By the summit Dominic and Maurice had extended the gap to well over a minute, on the chasing group led by Richard and Eugene. There was a bit of jousting on the path off Slieve Martin between Richard, Eugene and Peter McConville. Once on the tarmac Eugene and Peter notched it up gear and left Richard cursing them as they made for the finish.

A strong run from Dominic saw him narrowly pipped by Maurice Harte for the victory. Seamus Lynch took third, followed by Eugene, Peter McConville and Richard in 4th, 5th and 6th respectively. Newcastle won the team prize, albeit as they seemed to be the only club with a team out!!!

Fell Running News
Congratulations to Newcastle’s Jim Patterson who is currently second with 35 points in the Vet60 age group of the British Fell Running Championships, behind Bernard Grant (44 points) and one point clear of third place. Jim competed in the Seven Sevens at the weekend and as usual beat many younger than him. Congratulations also to Eoghan Totten who has been pre-selected to represent Ireland as a Junior at the forthcoming World Fell Running Championships to be held in Tirana, Albania on Sunday 11th September. This means that Eoghan is exempt from having to qualify at the 6480m trial race to be held in Wicklow on 13th August. Following in Eoghan’s footsteps is Nathan McComb. The 16 year old St. Malachy’s High School student is travelling to Wicklow to compete in the British and Irish Junior championship Trials on Saturday 13th August. If successful he will compete at championships which will be held in North Wales on 24th September at the Commonwealth Mountain and Ultra Distance championships, a race that Eoghan won in 2009. We wish Nathan the very best of luck.

Snowdon Race
David McNeilly finished 38th in the Snowdon (the highest peak in Wales) race on 23rd July in a time of 1.19 04, David was second Northern Ireland man. David says he had a good steady start and the weather was warm in Lamberis for the start of race. He worked his way through the field and was 42nd at top. Andrew Annett from Mourne Runners was 30 seconds ahead of David at the summit. From the top David had Andrew in his sights and managed to catch him half way down on his way to finishing 38th overall, recording the quickest decent of the Northern Ireland team of 26.45 overall time of 1.19.02. David was pleased with his run and his return to form.

Downpatrick RGU 10k
Luke McMullan, a runner that has improved dramatically in the last 12 months was the best placed of the Newcastle posse at the recent Downpatrick event. Buoyed on by his excellent performances in the Leinster fell League, Luke clocked an impressive 36 minutes dead to claim 8th place overall. Mark Kendall ran steady as usual and will be pleased to have dipped under the 37 minute barrier in 36:57. Paul Fegan, a man for all seasons and all events came home in 85th place in a time of 47:50. When asked to describe the event Mark Kendall commented, “Excellent route, beautiful evening and lovely bit of wheaten bread with jam and a lovely cup of tea at finish.” This would explain why Hugo Rodgers, a man renowned for judging the quality of post race fayre was observed along the road encouraging the athletes as they passed by.
Cookstown 5 Mile Road Race
Mark Kendal was the only athlete to make the journey to Cookstown to compete in the 5 mile race. In a Race won by Stephen Scullion in 24:36, Mark finished 19th in 28:40, averaging 5:44 for each of the five miles. This effort will undoubtedly help Mark as he prepares for the Dublin Marathon.

Belfast Donor Run
Ian Brannigan, a man who has been an inspiration to all athletes in the area for a generation, was first man home in the Belfast Telegraph Donor Run 5k mini marathon held in Belfast on Sunday 6th August. Ian who was competing in the Brisish Transplant Games (more on Ian’s performances in the games where he won two gold and two silver medals in the next issue), held in the capital over the weekend recorded a time of 19:13, almost a minute clear of Welshman Stuart Davies. Orla Smyth from Belfast made it a double for Northern Ireland when she won the Ladies’ 3k event in 12:49. Congratulations to both athletes. Ian was also making the news on the airwaves as Radio Ulster DJ Ralph McLean dedicated his soul show on Saturday evening to him in recognition of his participation and success in the transplant Games. Ian is a man who enjoys his music and has been known to attend the odd gig with his good friends ‘Oggy’, ‘Podge’ and ‘the General’. Sometimes if the 7 seater ‘vengabus’ is used as the transport occasional guests are invited, but more often than not the circle remains closed to outsiders.

Plenty of racing ahead
There are plenty of events in the weeks ahead. Tomorrow (Thursday) there is a 10k in Burren, over a course similar to that used in their Christmas race. On Friday athletes can take part in the Cutter’s 10k along the Lagan Tow Path (entries will be taken in Stranmillis College). The traditional Ballyclare, promoted by East Antrim AC) 10 mile race has been reduced to 7 this year and takes place on Saturday 13th. On the same day the weekly free run at the Waterworks (Victoria Park) in Belfast takes place. This event is run each and every Saturday and is open to all who register before 6.30pm on Friday evening. Brendan Donnelly has been running regularly in these races and recently completed the course in 19:17 to claim 5th place. The following day sees the race around Camlough Lake run over a course around 7.5 miles in length. More locally the date for the annual Mill Hill Mile has been provisionally set for Tuesday 6th September. Registration will be outside the Library in Castlewellan, with the race itself starting in Annsborough as 7.30pm. Everyone in welcome to come along and participate, but for health and safety reasons younger runners must be accompanied by an adult throughout the race.

And finally….
The dictionary defines madness as ‘the quality or condition of being insane’. However in light of events witnessed at the weekend the definition could be altered somewhat to include the climbing of the 7 highest peaks in the Mournes in a single day. The Seven Seven’s race does exactly what it says on the flyer; depart from Donard Park, summit each of the seven mountains above 700m high before returning to Donard Park. This race is the fourth round of the NIMRA championship and one of the most challenging in the series if not across the whole of the British Isles. Last year Stephen Cunningham covered the course of more than 20 miles with 8500 feet of climbing thrown in for good measure in an amazing 3 hours 36 to set a new record. Having never completed such a race before, I agreed, with a great degree of intrepedition, to accompany my erstwhile colleague Darren Swail in taking this beast of a race on. Thankfully we were joined by Laurence Hamilton (the only man in Newcastle who goes to work in CK jeans!) at the start and we set out early to follow the route that would be followed by the elite athletes later in the day.

We reached the summit of Donard in just over an hour before retracing our steps back to the saddle on the way to Commedagh. After a sharp descent and a lot of contouring we reached the top of Lamagan. By this stage the energy bars were unwrapped and it felt like a bit of a picnic. On we pressed to the top of Binnian and at the three hour mark we had four of the seven peaks under our belts. The next leg of the race was a long undulating trek across the wall of the Ben Crom Reservoir to Meelbeg. This is where it all went wrong! Perhaps we were tiring; perhaps we took poor counsel from those travelling in the opposite direction; perhaps we paid insufficient attention to our maps. Whatever the case we ended up on top of Loughshannagh! The eighth peak was certainly not part of the original plan. Wearily we trudged off our extra climb to resume the race course. Eventually we made it up and down the three remaining summits, Meelbeg, Meelmore and Bernagh, before dropping to the Brandy Pad and beginning our journey home. It was at this point, a mere six hours into the race that Des Woods, who had started three hours after us, hared past and within minutes was but a dot on the horizon as he cruised to a comfortable victory. Congratulations to Des on his impressive winning time of 3 hours and 51 minutes. Des did not break the record and neither did we (though we were the laughing stock of the fell running community for our sojourn to Loughshannagh)! Eventually, with all the energy bars, jelly babies, sandwiches, chocolate and anything else we could find consumed we arrived back just as the Red Arrows were flying over the town. Darren thinks he actually put on weight during our seven and a half hour expedition. The last two days have been spent walking down the stairs backwards, much to the amusement of anyone who has seen it, but it was well worth it to say that I have completed this monumental race. There will be more in the next issue about the Newcastle athletes who were more serious competitors, but well done to all who ran, walked or crawled the course.