Glasgow and Sligo this weekend venues

JP Williamson and Amy McDaid will conteat the Junior U20 races on Sunday and the Spartans will also have a Boys U18 squad plus Girls U16 Aoife Laverty and U18 Amy Jackson travelling. Medals will be a big ask here but its all about the performance and their progress will be eagerly awaited.

Oran McBride, Jacqueline McGinley, Bridgeen Byrne, Una Gavin, Roisin Lynch, Paula McGilloway and Dermot Connolly will be in Glasgow for Saturday’s Masters event where they will face strong opposition from the best age group athletes from England, Scotland, Wales, and both NI and the Republic.

Meanwhile Meath athlete Anthony Ledwith led home the 800 plus field at Saturdays Joe Seeley 10K road race in Ormeau Park, his 30 minutes and 47 seconds wining time just pipping Annadale Striders Paddy Hamilton by one second with Mullingar Harrier Mark Christie not far behind on 30 minutes and 55 seconds, completing the indivual NI 10K championship medallists.

The womens title also went South, Hazel Murphy of DSD posting a winning 35m 41s, ahead of Dromores Julie Turley on 35 minutes and 52 seconds and Gladys Ganiel of North Belfast third with 35 minutes and 59 secpmds. Fifth placed Patrick Brennan of Letterkenny was the best North West finisher with 31 minutes and 9 seconds while Scott Rankin won the local bragging rights, the inform Foyle Valley man placed 12th with 32 minutes and 41 seconds as he outsprinted the Spartan’s Emmet McGinty whose 32 minutes and 45 seconds was a new 10K road personal best. Noel Logan had a good run for 19th in 33 minutes and 18 seconds as the three Londonderry athletes showed well in a quality field.

Catherine Lilburn ran 41 minutes and 41 seconds for a decent showing and was supported by Camilla McGranaghan and Catherine Lagan in the womens race. Sean Laverty did well in the M45 age group with a 37 minutes and 6 seconds run, followed by M35 Scott Galbraith 38 minutes and 27 seconds; Peter Lilburn was among the top M55’s with 38 minutes and 31 seconds and M40 Philip Donaghey did well with 38 minutes and 59 seconds.

However one of the best runs of the day was the 40m dead effort from M65 Christy McMonagle and this is, subject to ratification a new Irish age group 10K road record. The peerless Spartan has clearly fully recovered from his recent record breaking Dublin Marathon run and apart from adding the NI 10K title to the National 10K, Half Marathon and Marathon titles can now also claim Irish age group records for all three distances.