Weekly Report – 5th February-11th February 2024

February 16, 2024 by Sean Tanuvasa

NI Civil Service – Stormont Cross Country

Saturday saw OAC taking part in our first Club Championship race of 2024. As usual we were kicking things off with the Stormont XC hosted by NI Civil Service Athletics Club. It was a great turnout for the club with 24 members taking part including Alice Quinn making her race debut for the club – worth noting that she seemed to genuinely enjoy it so we can go ahead and sign her up for all future cross-country events.

Unfortunately last year’s Club Championship winners, myself and Edwina Ternan, were unable to race (i.e. we have now been members long enough to come up with good excuses to avoid XC events). I have however included photos of us with our trophies from last year to remind you all of our athletic prowess and give you something to aspire to now that the Club Championship is up and running.

Well done everyone, I fully enjoyed watching it from the sidelines. Special mention to Andrew Carson for valiantly sticking with Andrew McIntyre in an exciting two-horse race, before reality eventually caught up to him. His fourth place finish was well-deserved. Full results are below

UUJ Indoor Sprints

Elsewhere, a number of Orangegrove AC athletes took part in the indoor 60m sprints at the University of Ulster’s Jordanstown campus on Saturday.

Ben Sykes won the U17 boys’ 60m sprint in 7.19, Ewan Donald won the U16 boys’ 60m sprint in 7.48 and Ester Hameen Smith won the U15 girls’ 60m sprint in 8.14. Well done everyone, full results for the club members are below.

Senior, U23 and U20 Men 60m race 1

Adam Sykes – 7.05
James Armstrong – 7.18
Dylan Byrne – 7.58

U17 Girls 60m race 1

Grace Wallace – 8.46

U17 Boys 60m race 1

Ben Sykes – 7.13

U16 Boys 60m

Ewan Donald – 7.48
Nikolaos Lalos – 7.72

U15 Girls 60m

Ester Hameen Smith – 8.14

U14 Boys 60m

Kai Harris – 7.85

U17 Girls 60m race 2

Grace Wallace – 8.58

U17 Boys 60m race 2

Ben Sykes – 7.19

Senior, U23 and U20 Men 60m race 2

Adam Sykes – 7.00
James Armstrong – 7.26
Dylan Byrne – 7.59

Armagh International Road Race – 3km

Earlier in the week Andrew Carson attended the 2024 edition of the Armagh International Road Race, taking part in the men’s open 3k. Even though that’s a good 3k time your first kilometre was in 3.17, so I’m putting it on record that you’ve blown up twice in a week.

Andrew Carson – 10.34

Parkrun Report

10/02/2024

I was expecting to see a smaller parkrun turnout than usual seeing as the cross-country event was on Saturday, but I was proven wrong, and a couple of us (Michael O’Donoghue and Colin Simpson) actually ran parkrun and took part in the Stormont XC – far more committed that I will ever be.

It was a good week for parkrun tourism with five of us trying out new locations for the first time. Jean Stone at Valley Newtownabbey, Ian Wilson at Donabate, Michael O’Donoghue at River Valley, and Kimberley Reynolds and Alison Canning at University of Galway. As well as doing a new location Ian Wilson ran his fastest parkrun since 2015 with a time of 24.44 – obviously the course suits you, maybe you’ll have to just travel down to Fingal every week.

Great running everyone!

Results

Belfast Victoria

Tom Smith – 23.26
David Fletcher – 25.37
Reg Sanlon – 26.39
Emma Smith – 27.14
Paul Woodman – 27.33
Brian McFarland – 28.18

Ormeau

David Gilliland – 28.27

Valley, Newtownabbey

Jean Stone – 36.09

Donabate

Ian Wilson – 24.44

River Valley

Michael O’Donoghue – 24.19