The first race of the weekend was East Down AC’s Rollercoaster races. First on the podium for the club were Aodham Bardon and Laura Hannah, both taking 2nd place in the P3 races. In the P4/P5 race Emily Steele finished 6th and Rose Carson 21st. Eve Kenneally ran a fantastic P7 girls race to finish first and covering the 1kms in 3:53. She was followed by Arizona Forde in 6th, Celeste Forde in 7th, Kate Lenny in 12th, Tierna Bardon in 18th, Alea Brannigan in 34th and Hannah Carson in 41st. In the P7 boys race Morgan Steele finished in 24th followed by Pierce Bardon in 39th and Rory Corrigan in 42nd.

A lot of secondary school athletes were still recovering from the Down Schools XC races on Thursday so we only had 3 girls representing the club at the Rollercoaster U13 race. Kiara Cairns finished the 1.5km course in 8th place in a time of 6:49, followed by Eabha Campbell in 9th and Tamzin Johnston in 13th.

Congratulations to Sarah Dougherty, Dearbhla Magee and Patrick Sheridan who all ran fantastic races at the Down Schools XC in Delamont to qualify for the Ulster XC Championships at Mallusk. Well done to all the juniors who competed in Delamont in very testing conditions and produced some very promising results.

In the Senior Rollercoaster Races we were back on the podium with David O’Flaherty taking 2nd place and David McNeilly taking 3rd place, both giving the home win to Brendan Teer. Niall Carson finished in 20th place.

Further afield Eoghan Totten was competing for his University team at the BUCS XC Championships in Scotland.  Eoghan finished in 48th place.

Seamus Lynch travelled to the second race of the IMRA winter league in Ticknock and took a fine win over the 8km course in a time of 38:08.

On the roads Alan Strachan competed in the Watford Half Marathon and finished 24th V40 in a time of 1:24:08