Springwell athletes brave the conditions to take part in events

On what was possibly the quietest weekend of the year for local competitive running events many of our athletes took the opportunity to take a break, away from the stress and rigours of racing, which was good timing, as the weather took a definate turn for the worse.
By The Newsroom
Published 29th Nov 2015, 09:42 BST
Aiden Devine - 1st Springwell runner home in the Clontarf Half MarathonAiden Devine - 1st Springwell runner home in the Clontarf Half Marathon
Aiden Devine - 1st Springwell runner home in the Clontarf Half Marathon

However there were still some excellent performances from our Springwell runners in the events that did take place.

Undeterred by the weather a few hardy souls from the Limavady group ventured southwards to take part in the Clontarf Half Marathon on Saturday 21st November, which incorporated a 3 mile stretch an the beach.

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Despite the very cold temperatures, strong winds and challenging course, all of our Springwell representatives did the club proud, with Aiden Devine first of our runners home and Connor McStravick recording an excellent PB. Out of the very large field of 1695 finishers, Springwell results were:

184th Aiden Devine 01:35:24, 201st Barry McCluskey 01:36:34, 242 Connor McStrvick 01:37:38 (PB) and 280th Amanda Connell 01:39:16

Other than that, the main focus on Saturday was on the park run scene where several Springwell members recorded PBs including Andy Deal ( 4th Overall and 1st VM40-44) and Catherine Byer at Portrush, Warren McIlmoyle (4th Overall and 1st VM35-39) and Catherine Pinkerton-Moore (9th Overall and 1st Lady) at Limavady, Catherines’ 2nd PB in as many weeks, following on from her great run at the Decathlon 10k. It was also good to see Robert Workman out again at Portrush, after a lengthy enforced absence from the running scene.

On Sunday 22nd, Portrush park run Supremo, Mervyn Thompson, took part in the Belfast Duathlon in the Titanic centre, an event which incorporated a 2 mile run, 10 mile bike and 2 mile run. Mervyn finished a very creditable 43rd in a total time of 01:09:59.

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Sunday 22nd November saw a team of our Junior athletes, along with their coaches, Philip Tweedie and Ali Bratten attend the GloHealth Irish Even XC Championships in sunny Dublin (Santry to be exact) where some great and gutsy performances took place.

Along with some terrific individual performances from our Junior Boy and Girl athletes, the U18 Girls team secured a fantastic 4th place overall in their Age Group. Full Springwell results as follows:

Jack Culbertson (U14 Boys) 27th out of 153 finishers, Niamh Carr (U16 Girls) 11th out of 114 finishers and Andrew Gordon (U16 Boys) 16th out of 142 finishers

U18 Girls team: 4th Overall - 29th Hermione Skuce, 42nd Molly Brennan, 46th Aine McKinney and 62nd Rebekah Hunter

A special mention must go to Hermione Skuce who ran with badly bruised ribs and Rebekah Hunter who pulled a calf muscle on the 2nd lap but bravely ran on to finish for the team.

Related topics:LimavadyPortrush