East Coast Athletic Club team wins bronze medal

The weekend action kicked off on Saturday with the Northern Ireland (Road) Relay Championships in Victoria Park, Belfast. 

The club’s first venture into ‘Championship’ competition proved very successful, with the Mixed ‘A’ team (4 x 1,689m) of Justin Maxwell, Trisha Campbell, Penny Lindsay and Mark McManus winning a bronze medal after completing their four legs in 23:21. Justin Maxwell’s first-leg time of 5:03 proved to be the fastest 1,689m leg of the entire event. 

In the same race, the East Coast AC ‘B’ team (James Robinson, Jenny Magill, Roisin Lavery and Ryan Maxwell) took 10th place in 26:42, and the ‘C’ team (Alan Glover, Kerry Campbell, Gillian Leetch-Armstrong and Lionel Date) followed in 30:10 (11th place).

In the competitive Masters Men’s 4 x 3,380m race, the East Coast AC ‘A’ team of Nat Glenn, Greg Lavery (above), David Clarke and James Brown missed a podium finish by a mere four seconds, taking fourth place in 44:55. 

Andy Guy, Naoise McLaughlin, Paul Hutchinson and Kieran McKeown all ran well to ensure that the ‘B’ team finished well up the field in 12th place after recording 49:25, before the ‘C’ team (Allan McCullough, Drew Girvin, Phil Smyth and Chris Davis), battled well to finish in 57:10 (26th place).

Special mention must also go to junior athlete, Rhys McManus and his cousin Katie Glover (who competes for Ballymena & Antrim AC), after both performed very well in the junior races which took place prior to the adult events.  On the day, the participating team members were encouraged by a large number of fellow club mates, family and friends.

Also on Saturday, Jenna Montgomery travelled to Ballymena for the Ecos parkrun.  Jenna put in a good performance to complete the 5k time trial in 30:06 (20th place).