from Athletic Northern Ireland website The first race of the McCain UK Cross Challenge kicked off on Saturday at Gateshead where Stephanie Twell and the Netherland’s Michel Butter took the Senior titles.
Gareth Turnbull (St/Malachy’s AC) finished in 17th in a time of 29.52. In the senior men’s one lap race, James Brewer (Cheltenham & County) won in a blanket finish from Ricky Stevenson (New Marske Harriers) with Gareth Turnbull competing again and finshing in 3rd place.
The next race in the challenge will be in Liverpool. Don’t forget the IAAF antrim XC on 3rd January- enter online now bfore December 15th.
Link to Gateshead results available.
IRISH UNIVERSITIES ROAD RELAYS
Three Abbey athletes helped the Queens University Belfast men’s team claim fourth place in the Irish Universities Athletic Association Road Relay Championships on Saturday 15 November at Maynooth. The Queens’ women were eighth.
The men’s race consisted of five legs of one mile, two miles, three miles, two miles, and one mile. Paul Pollock took the three mile leg for Queens, clocking 14.20 for the second-fastest time of the day behind only Rory Chesser of the University of Limerick (14.16).
Dublin City University won the relay, trailed by University College Dublin and Limerick.
There were two Abbey athletes in action for the Queen’s women, who finished eighth. The women’s race consisted of teams of four, running one mile, two miles, two miles and one mile. Judi Graham timed 11.23, the sixth fastest on the day.
The women’s field was exceptionally competitive, with UCD’s Charlotte Ffrench-O’Carroll churning out the fastest time of 10.07, ahead of established Irish international athletes Fionnuala Britton of DCU (10.35), Lynda Byrne of DCU (10.40), Aoife Byrne of UCD (11.04) and Limerick’s Fiona Kehoe (11.17). DCU also took the women’s crown ahead of UCD and Limerick.
Abbey AC website.
