East Antrim Harriers AC

A good squad of Harriers made the journey to Castlewellan for the annual festive pairs race across mixed terrain. This is always an enjoyable day out & big thanks goes to Newcastle Athletic Club for putting on yet another great race. Special shout outs to Brandon McKeown for being first club man over the line with his partner in 18th position, plus Gareth Blair & Billy Reed who comfortably won their Age Category with a strong run for 24th overall. Not pictured were Davy Turtle & Davy Lennon, with conflicting reports about whether they were already halfway home or else still stuck in a muddy bog somewhere in the outskirts of Castlewellan. We’ll let you decide…

While Europe’s best were battling it out on a Dublin cross country course, East Antrim’s best were also racing on the grass & mud this morning. This was the first club handicap of the winter as our runners competed for the McCalmont Cup over a 4 mile distance. Well done to Billy Reed who started well back in the field for coming through to win the race. 2nd place was Gareth Blair & 3rd place went to Nikki Tucker. Thanks to all the runners & time-keepers.

Yesterday we had a host of runners competing in the brilliant Seeley Cup 10k race in Ormeau Park, Belfast. There were lots of good performances with notable mentions for Ross Mercer who ran a PB to dip under 35 mins for the first time, Reuben Moore for a promising debut in club colours & Kirstie Annett for her fastest 10k time post-baby! All this was topped off by a night out for our Club Christmas Dinner. Results Ross Mercer 34.48 PB John Neill 36.22 Matt McDowell 37.47 Gareth Blair 37.59 David Turtle 39.00 Steven Beggs 39.24 Pete Fraser 39.55 Tim Khanna 43.14 David Lennon 45.45 Kirstie Annett 49.58