It has been a super busy week with various cross country events happening, and plenty of our Juniors taking the opportunity to don their spikes before the season end, and many more participating in the usual weekend Parkruns and other events. The Juniors will be wearing their vests with a special sense of pride, having been inspired by the Senior Men’s epic performance landing them in the top 10 teams in Europe just a couple of weeks ago. Is it just me or do our littlest runners at Larne today bear an uncanny resemblance to our European Champs?! With that in mind, let’s see how our Juniors have been performing and prepping themselves for such future glories!
AAI Indoor League Athletics Meet Athlone
Starting with Saul Thompson’s performance at the first round of the AAI National Indoor League Track Meeting in Athlone, we are delighted to see Saul recovering from injury with a strong 400m performance in a time of 56.27 – all of us at the club wish you well and hope you can continue to go from strength to strength Saul.
SCHOOL DISTRICTS HEAT AND STORMONT CROSS COUNTRY
Turning to Cross Country events, what a week for Harrier Cillian McLaughlin who achieved a superb double, with a silver podium place in both his events, firstly in his heat of the Boys Mini race at the Schools Districts on Tuesday, followed by another fantastic run for the Junior Boys U13 Team at Stormont. Silver medals were the order of the day at Stormont, with clubmate Nola Rafferty also winning one for her impressive performance for the Junior Girls U13 Team. Well done too to Eimear, Mason, Isaac, Pearse, and Luke for their performances in the U13s race – every single one of you gained valuable participation points and have contributed to the overall end of season Club ranking so please give yourselves a pat on the back from us!
Stormont U13 Boys and Girls Results
| Pos | Firstname | Lastname | Cat | Finish |
| 2 | Cillian | McLoughlin | MU13 | 00:07:07 |
| 6 | Mason | Mercer | MU13 | 00:07:15 |
| 11 | Isaac | Mooney | MU13 | 00:07:34 |
| 13 | Nola | Rafferty | WU13 | 00:07:46 |
| 20 | Eimear | Coy | WU13 | 00:08:12 |
| 21 | Pearse | Leheny | MU13 | 00:08:12 |
| 30 | Luke | O’Shaughnessy | MU13 | 00:08:37 |
A small but mighty squad for the Junior Boys U15 didn’t disappoint. Thomas Coy dominated with a fine performance to secure poll position and a Gold medal, and there were excellent runs from team mates Cormac Leheny and recent addition Leo McAuley, who we’re delighted to have as part of the Harriers family. Both just missed out on medals, finishing in 4th and 5th places respectively. The future is bright and this team is definitely going to be one to watch.
STORMONT U15 BOYS RESULTS
2nd Thomas Coy MU15 00:09:36
4th Cormac Leheny MU15 00:10:28
5th Leo McAuley MU15 00:10:34
EAST COAST AC JUNIOR XC SERIES AT LARNE
The first event in this 3 race competition promoting junior athletics took place on Sunday morning. This is an excellent series, in particular for the very youngest members of our squad, and gives a taster for those wanting to experience the wonderful world of cross country. The various races take place in a friendly, fun environment, and with lots of post race buns and treats, what’s not to like?! The next 2 events are on Sunday 2nd and 23rd March and are still open to enter even if you didn’t get to the first one, and if you have never run in a race before, this is the one for you – give it a go – you will have plenty of support from the Club to cheer you on!! https://register.enthuse.com/ps/event/ECACJuniorXCSeries25
There were some great performances on the first of the series with a number of Harriers winning medals (and treats!). New member Sion McAllister couldn’t have had a better start for the Club, taking 1st place on his very first outing as a NBH, with club faithful Isaac Mooney taking the bronze in the Junior Boys 1500m race. And another silver medal spot for Sophie Doris, who has form in this series, which she matched with another fantastic run, securing second place for her in the Minor Girls 1000m race. Maria Maguire and Jessica Murray also put on great displays, both just missing out on medals in 4th and 5th place in the Junior Girls 1500m. Well done to everyone who gave this a go. We are super proud of you all! Full results are below.
MINI BOYS 500m RACE
7th Naoise Lynch O Hare 02:53
MINOR GIRLS 1000m RACE
2nd Sophia Doris 2015 04:08
7th Lucy Dickson 2015 05:12
9th Eva Mooney 2017 05:31
11th Penny Dickson 2018 05:56
MINOR BOYS 1000m RACE
7th Séadna Lynch O’Hare 2016 04:25
13th Charlie McCurdy 2017 04:55
15th Luke Doris 2017 05:12
JUNIOR GIRLS 1500m RACE
4th Maria Maguire 2013 06:51
5th Jessica Murray 2014 06:54
8th Annie Cullen 2014 07:44
9th Betsy Taylor 2013 07:50
JUNIOR BOYS 1500m RACE
1st Sion McAllister 2013 05:28
3rd Isaac Mooney 2014 05:53
9th Max McCurdy 2014 06:42
WATERWORKS PARKRUN
Leaving the muddy cross country fields and trails behind for the more solid ground of Waterworks Parkrun, as ever, there was a healthy smattering of Juniors on Saturday morning putting on some terrific performances. A particular mention has to go to Dara Cassidy who managed a fantastic PB of 19 minutes 24 seconds in the 5k on Saturday. Great running Dara!
Full results for Saturday’s Parkrun are below.
| 7 | Dara CASSIDY | Male | JM15-17 | North Belfast Harriers | 19:24 |
| 26 | Milo PURVIS | Male | JM10 | North Belfast Harriers | 22:44 |
| 31 | Thomas WEINIGER | Male | JM11-14 | North Belfast Harriers | 23:00 |
| 65 | Niamh MCMILLAN | Female | JW15-17 | North Belfast Harriers | 25:29 |
| 92 | Sophie WEINIGER | Female | JW11-14 | North Belfast Harriers | 27:17 |
| 133 | Katie-Louise GOODFELLOW | Female | WWC | North Belfast Harriers | 29:26 |
| 142 | Orán STEELE | Male | JM15-17 | North Belfast Harriers | 29:45 |
WATERWORKS JUNIOR PARKRUN
Then on Sunday morning, we had more great runs from a few of our younger club members at the Junior Parkrun 2K, and a particular shout out goes to Annabel Boyd and Owen White for achieving fantastic PBs. Keep up the good work kids – your training is paying off!
| 5 | Annabelle BOYD | Female | JW10 | North Belfast Harriers | 09:51 |
| 16 | Ronan O’NEILL | Male | JM10 | North Belfast Harriers | 10:41 |
| 21 | Owen WHITE | Male | JM10 | North Belfast Harriers | 11:54 |
| 42 | Dara MCLAUGHLIN | Male | JM11-14 | North Belfast Harriers | 24:23 |
VALLEY PARKRUN
And finally, Club member Olivia Boyd had an exciting day at the Valley Parkrun – not only was she 6th female finisher, but she also had the bonus of meeting Dame Kelly Holmes, Olympic athlete extraordinaire. Just goes to show, you never know who might be watching and cheering you on at Parkrun!
| 35 | Olivia BOYD | Female | JW11-14 | North Belfast Harriers | 26:00 |
Up and Coming Events
Turning to the weeks and months ahead, good luck to all who have qualified for the Ulster Schools finals at Mallusk on Wednesday 19th February – we can’t wait to hear how you fare in a couple of weeks time. In the meantime, we would encourage all our budding runners to give the remaining East Coast Larne series a go. And whilst it is a couple of months away yet, we would love to have every single Junior member turning out for the Club’s very own Laganside 10k and Children’s Mile event on Sunday 7th September so put the date in your diary now – nothing makes us prouder than watching a busy hive of black and yellow vests buzz through Ormeau Park, representing the club at this very popular event – register now and help us make this year’s event the best one yet! https://ani.opentrack.run/en-gb/x/2023/GBR/lag-10k/
Training News
Training continues over the half term break as normal on Tuesdays and Thursdays. Just a reminder to continue to wear warm and bright gear – it is great to see a stretch in the evenings, but for now it remains cold and dark around the track so please bear that in mind! A note for the diaries, there’ll be no training at Girls Model on Thursday 17th April (Holy Thursday). And finally finally finally everyone will have received an email reminder about membership renewals so don’t forget to click on the link to renew. That’s all for now folks. Well done on a busy week – the future is in safe hands with the Junior Club going from strength to strength and who knows maybe today’s Minis, Minors and Juniors are future European Champs in the making!!