Winter Cross Country League finale

Senior XC Championships

Nine Springwell ladies travelled to Carndonagh in Donegal on Sunday, February 18 for the Senior Cross Country Championships and the final fixture of this seasons Winter Cross Country League.

A morning of scattered showers gave way to a pleasant afternoon of light wind and overcast sky for the start of the ladies’ race at 1:30pm.

Hosted by Inishowen AC at Carndonagh GAA, the course was a 1500m lap that meandered through two fields at the rear of the clubhouse, and with no elevation on the lap there was no opportunity for any respite during the four laps of the race.

A strong run from Judith Buchanan saw her finish in 32nd with an impressive 29:53. Deborah McPhee was 47th in 33:36, with Leanne Quigley 51st in 33:50, closely followed by Ashley McPhee who was 55th in 34:11, and Helena Dornan, 61st in 35:30. Sinead Graham and Alison Duncan matched each other stride for stride from start to finish, both crossing the line in 36:21 with Sinead 63rd and Alison 64th. Ingrid Hamilton finished 81st in 42:20 and Linda McMichael brought the club home with a beaming smile as she crossed the line 85th in 44:18.

Congratulations to all our ladies who accepted the challenge of cross country this year, it's fantastic that so many enjoyed the experience, so hopefully the spikes will be kept handy for next season.

In Other News

One Springwell member made the trip to County Down on Saturday, February17 for the finale of the Born 2 Run "Run Forest Run" series at Castlewellan Forest Park.

Running in the 10k event James Barr finished 574th in 1:09:00. On Sunday 18th February Aidan Mooney removed County Leitrim from the list of counties that he still has to run a half marathon in, as he completed the Drumshanbo Half Marathon, finishing 314th with a time of 2:22:28.

Parkrun

There was a big turnout of Springers for this weekend’s parkrunning as three score and ten got their 5k's completed before the rain arrived.

Eleven different venues feature in this week’s results, but when it comes to touring the parkrun sites it's hard to keep track of Catherine Byers, who has now completed parkruns at 150 different locations.

The personal bests were to be found at the seaside this week as Heather Spence, Shirley McGaffin and Peter Wilson recorded theirs at Portrush. David O'Neill retains the title of furthest travelled Springer this week as he continues his tour of the parkruns of New Zealand with an appearance at Lake2Lake Trail parkrun.

Thanks to all the volunteers who make parkrun happen.

Richmond - Lorraine ABERNETHY 32:50, Amanda SCOTT 34:52, Catherine BYERS 35:16, Elaine MONTGOMERY 50:49

Ecos - Reggie COLVILLE 20:47, Kenneth BACON 44:05

Queen’s - Conor SHIELDS 23:37, Majella MCATEER 24:46, Colin CONNOLLY 30:42

Portrush - Andy WHITEFORD 19:05, Maurice WALKER 20:07, Rhys WALKER 20:25, Fiona PRUE 21:35, David MCGAFFIN 22:58, Shaun CARTON 23:02, Paul LAVERTY 23:16, Jonno JOHNSON 24:22, Cathy ADAMS 24:38, Reid JACK 25:04, Heather SPENCE 25:09 PB, Patrick MAGEE 25:10, Mervyn THOMPSON 25:19, Roslind OVEREND 25:24, Alan PLATT 25:40, Patricia CRAIG 26:40, Andrew WILMOT 26:58, Andrew WILSON 29:09, Karen GARVIN 29:50, Liz DOWEY 30:48, Julie CORBETT 32:40, Naomi GORDON 36:08, Shirley MCGAFFIN 36:08 PB, Iris WILSON 36:51, Caitriona MACKLE 37:10, Caoimhe QUINN 45:30, Deborah PURDY 46:30, Fergal MACKLE 51:51, Roisin WALKER 53:01, Peter WILSON 53:02 PB

MUSA - Bernie HANNIGAN 28:47

Castlewellan - Gary KENDALL 23:45

Carrickfergus - Roy BUCHANAN 25:41

Limavady - Chris DENTON 17:33, Brian MOORE 21:42, Deborah MC PHEE 22:54, Kevin MCLEAN 22:55, John BUTCHER 22:56, Fergus THOMPSON 23:22, Laura-Ann CARMICHAEL 23:49, Gael BUTCHER 24:07, Pauline MULLAN 24:19, Leanne QUIGLEY 24:32, Adrian FINLAY 24:39, Michael MCKEOWN 25:54, Alan WHITE 26:17, Janet PATRICK 26:24, Sinead GRAHAM 26:47, Alison C DUNCAN 26:47, Heather MCLAUGHLIN 27:27, Ryan CAMPBELL 28:03, Kathryn CAMPBELL 28:03, Ingrid HAMILTON 29:25, John MCMICHAEL 30:17, Linda MC MICHAEL 30:29, Nicola WHITE 33:02, Katrina ADAMS 44:33

Garvagh Forest - Kay HACK 37:34

Limepark Playing Fields - Ali SHAW 20:20, Aisling HYNES 29:44

Lake2Lake Trail - David O'NEILL 19:21