Local athletes take part in Glens Runners 15 Mile Run event

On Saturday the Glens Runners organised a number of runs, of varying distance, over the mountainous roads from the Marine Hotel in Ballycastle to the centre of Cushendall, the 15 miler including a seven mile climb from Ballycastle to the Vanishing Lake, followed by a long, steep, winding descent down to the Viaduct, then a rolling finish into the centre of Cushendall.

Steven Magill on the climb to the Vanishing Lake.

Steven Magill, an excellent hill runner in his own right, and a 3hr Marathon man, enjoyed the company of Jonny Steede, one of Irelands finest Fell Runners, now running for the Glen Runners and Kevin O’Boyle, ex-Ballymena Runners, for the most part of this run before easing off on the descent to avoid aggrevating an existing niggly hamstring injury to finish in an excellent time of just under 1hr 39’.

Jonny and Kevin motored on for the final miles, finishing in around 1hr 32’ on this tough and demanding run. Well done Steven!

Also on Saturday, hundreds of athletes from Northern Ireland made the cross-border journey to Sligo for the prestigious GloHealth AAI National All Ireland Schools Cross Country Championships, which were held at the picturesque Sligo Race Course.

Again it was a great day for the Juniors at the Irish Schools XC Championships, with Andrew Gordon and Niamh Carr finishing fifth and seventh respectively in their races, resulting in both being selected for the Irish XC teams. Outstanding performances by this young pair and congratulations to both on gaining their Irish Representative honours.

Other notable performances included Hermione Skuce 17th, Jack Culbertson 28th and Rebekah Hunter 30th. The very talented Aife McSheffrey, in her last ever Irish Schools XC race, just missed out on a top 10 place finishing 11th in the Seniors.