Newmills runner Nick Griggs storms to victory in London Mini Marathon

The Mid Ulster Athletic Club member was a member of a 30 strong team of young athletes from Northern Ireland selected to compete in the mini marathon prior to the main London Marathon.

The race over 2,600m emerging distance runners from all over the United Kingdom.

Nick, a 16-year-old pupil at Cookstown High School, front led from the gun and came home a comfortable winner in 7:21.

Rory Friel, the NI team manager, appointed Nick team captain in London and his victory was an example to the other athletes.

His achievement was mentioned in the NI Assembly on Monday when Mid Ulster MLA Keith Buchanan contragulated Nick on his win after being selected for the Northern Ireland team at short notice.

Mr Buchanan highlighted Nick's athletics career to date and wished him well.

"It was a great achievement by this young man and I wish him well for his future whatever that may be," he said.

His school also congratulated him in a social media post: "Huge congratulations to Year 13 pupil, Nick, who was not only selected to run in the U17 London Mini Marathon to represent Northern Ireland, but he also went on to win the event.

"This is another unbelievable achievement for Nick who is certainly one to watch in the future on the Athletics field! Well done."

Back in July the teenager hit the headlines when he won a gold medal for Ireland over 3000m at the European U20 Championships in Tallinn, Estonia.

The victory was particularly poignant as it came a month after the tragic death of Nick's brother Josh in an road accident near Banbridge.

Mid Ulster District Council recently held a civic reception to acknowledge the young athlete's achievements.

---

Thank you for reading this article. We're more reliant on your support than ever as the shift in consumer habits brought about by Coronavirus impacts our advertisers.

Please consider purchasing a copy of the paper. You can also support trusted, fact-checked journalism by taking out a digital subscription of the News Letter.