On Sunday Orangegrove Athletics Club hosted the 2019 NI & Ulster Road Relay Championships, incorporating the NI Masters Athletics Association Relay Championships in association with McFarland Consulting and O’Reilly Stewart Solicitors. The event took place at Victoria Park, east Belfast and for the first time it was held on Sunday instead of the usual Saturday.

Always popular with nearly a thousand athletes from running clubs across the province taking part. Starting with a primary school boys and girls race the kids gave it their all to get a medal. Next up was the Junior race where local running club Scrabo Striders had two entrants in the U13 category, Riley Hanna and Laura Scott. They did the club proud completing the 1.6 km (1 mile) distance in 7 minutes 1 second and 7 minutes 17 seconds respectively.

Scrabo had three Ladies Masters teams entered, finishing the x distance in 46 minutes 53 seconds, 52:02 and 54:15, with each team comprising three athletes. The club’s sole Ladies Senior team completed the 6 mile distance in 49:22. The gents’ team comprises 4 athletes covering a total distance of 8 miles, where Scrabo’s Senior Men finished in 28^th position in 59 minutes exactly. Our three Mens’ Masters teams finished in 52:39, 54:35 and 01:00:52 with highest position 34^th in this category. Congratulations to Orangegrove for putting on a great show and a great day-long event.

Also on Sunday the final Dune cross-border half marathon took place from Newry to Dundalk. The course takes runners up a seemingly endless hill out of Newry crossing the border near the Carrickdale Hotel, then back into N. Ireland via another even steeper hill into the village of Jonesborough before crossing back into the Republic, winding along country roads into Dundalk.

Scrabo Striders had twenty athletes enter with Norman Mawhinney first to complete the challenging 13.1 miles in 1 hour 32 minutes 40 seconds, followed by Jonny Kinney 01:35:07, Colin McGimpsey 01:35:20, Tim McEwan 01:39:28, Graeme McGowan 01:39:35, Manny Farrelly 01:40:52 and Colin Harper 01:47:59.

First lady to finish for Scrabo was Shannon Clegg in 01:48:05 followed by Lesley Semple in 01:53:48, Leanne Campbell 02:01:33 with Sheena Crone ten seconds later, Dawn Ross in 02:01:47 and Caroline Smyth in 02:04:03. Chris Green, Paul Morrow, Justin Clegg, Chris Stevenson, George McGonigal, Liam Rodger and Gavin McDonnell also enjoyed the sunny conditions to complete the distance and receive the stunning bespoke medal.

Meanwhile at the Saturday morning Parkruns Shannon Clegg took overall female 1^st place at Comber in a time of 22 minutes 34 seconds while Robin Adams secured a new personal best time of 25:49 of the 5km distance.

Scrabo Striders Running Club continues to encourage new membership. Perhaps you would like to get back into running or have completed a Couch to 5K Program and would like to take running further, then please consider joining the club as it is an inexpensive and fun way to participate in the sport. We train on a Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday evening 7:15pm at Londonderry Park and welcome all abilities; you will be sure to team up with those who suit you pace. Find out more at www.scrabostriders.com