Weekly Report Monday 18th November – Sunday 24th November 2019

Orangegrove AC Senior Club Report Week beginning 18th November 2019  

It was a quiet week on the racing front with presumably a large contingent of OAC athletes fine tuning before next weekends Seely cup or just taking advantage an early Christmas break! Parkrun appeared to dominate the weekend running as many OAC members used it as a last time trial or tempo as a bit of a sharpener before Seely but the dynamic duo Brian Todd and Gerald Harvey couldn’t resist the muddy charms of the Malcom Cup Cross Country followed by the Ballyclare Christmas lights switch on! 

Last Friday evening the club in its drive to help improve performance and enjoyment of running for all hosted a self-massage and manipulation seminar aimed at helping prevent and reduce injury layoffs. The seminar was held in Knocknagoney Church Hall and there was a large turnout keen to benefit of the knowledge of physio and international runner Debbie Matchett of Ballydrain Harriers. Debbie well known on the running circuit has been running competitively for over 15 years shared her experiences and techniques with practical demonstrations and lots of chances of participation from the audience. It was a fun and enjoyable evening which I’m sure we all picked up some good tips and  benefited from. Many thanks to Debbie for coming along and Alan Montgomery and the club committee for organising such a great and informative evening. 

Malcom Cup Cross Country 

Sixmilewater Park, Ballyclare, 23rd November, 2019. [Report by Gerald Harvey] 

After prolonged weekend rain, the Six Mile Water was almost in flood by 1pm on Saturday when racing began with the Ladies’, Veteran Ladies’ and Veteran Men’s Race (officially 3 miles) and as it had just stopped raining, they had the best of the soggy conditions. At least it was all over relatively quickly as the usual distance was shortened by approximately a quarter of a mile. 

The race was won by Chris McKeown, M35 (Spa Striders) in 16:23 and first lady was Robyn McKee, FO (Dromore AC) in 18:04, 14th out of 269 runners.  OAC results: Brian Todd, 22:13, 1st place in the M65 category,99th overall; Gerald Harvey, 25:37, 195th place. In the Malcom Cup (officially 4 miles) the race was won by Conall Kirk (Annadale Striders) in 21:27. This was round 4 of the 2019-2020 NI Athletics Cross Country League.   

Parkrun 

23rd November 2019 

We don’t always focus too much on parkrun in the club report as we all know it’s a ‘timed run and not a race’ but with little racing elsewhere there was a large club participation in Parkruns right throughout NI and UK mainland. 

With many great runs by OAC athletes and several top positions picked up indications are there appears to be some in form athletes ahead of next weekend. Rachel Woodman was the stand out performance with 2nd lady home at Victoria Parkrun with a magnificent pb run of 20:43, Gemma Blake was looking strong as always with a 2nd lady and a time of 22:02 over the tough Stranmillis course, Gavin McGucken had a strong run to take 3rd overall with a time of 19:14 at Stormont and Keith Weir stretched the legs with 19:34 for 3rd at Comber Parkrun. In all 50 OAC members ran at 11 different Parkruns and you can get a full round up by following the link below.

https://www.parkrun.com/results/consolidatedclub/?clubNum=17953&fbclid=IwAR0XWeyOQHnAhe6N5ZBFCQ3GKpzpiYdnHU7g_6XR85YZ73EYU5U0wRO4U3o

Photo credits: Brian Todd, Michael O’Donaghue and Rodney Corrigan.