GIGANTIC JUMP FOR JASON

"After his recent AAI Waterford Star Award, which he won and was presented with at a dinner in Wicklow last month,JASON HARVEY took his 5th High Jump Age Group All Ireland Indoor title in a row, last weekend.  This was his 4th consecutive All Ireland Championship Record.  The Under 16 record had stood for 11 years. Jason jumped 1m 93cm a new PB as well."

EASTER MONDAY VICTORY FOR RONA

A sunny and blustery day greeted the 124 runners who took part in the Easter Monday Whitehead 5 mile road race.  A challenging course consisting of 3 hilly laps lay ahead.  The club had 7 runners, 2 male and 5 female in the race.  Once again our ladies, as they have so often this year, where in the honours.  RONA HARKENS was the first female home with RUTH MAGILL and KATE MONTGOMERY taking age category prizes.  The rest of us were pleased with our times. This weekend the sky blue and navy of Lagan Valley will be pounding the streets in the London Marathon curtsey of HAZEL HUNTER  and NATALIE CROSSLAND.  All of the Monday night squad wish them all the best for the race. Whitehead results: 

 CRAIG MOTTRAM EAT YOUR HEART OUT

JILL SHANNON proved that that it is not only Aussies who can take on the Africans and beat them. In the Laganside 10K Jill had a convincing victory over the hot favourite from Ethopia with a great personal best time of 33:38 one of the fastest times in the UK this year. Fourteen club members faced the starter and there were some fantastic personal bests with special mention to SARAH QUEE, DIANE WILSON and HAZEL HUNTER who all took several minutes off their previous times

JILL SHANNON  Downpatrick to Algeria                                              Jill Shannon produced an excellent winning performance in Jimmy's 10K on Sunday and then set off for Algeria to compete for Ireland in the World Students Games Cross Country Championships. Jill was ably supported in Downpatrick by Rona Harkens who finished 3rd overall and first in her age category, Diane Wilson with a great personal best and Susan Edwards, giving the club the team prize.  Terry Eakins once again claimed the M55 prize over 6 minutes ahead of his nearest rival. Eric Montgomery  was again well under 39 minutes and but it was wife Kate who ruled the roost celebrating her half century by winning her age category.

CLIMBING THE HIT PARADE                                                     If you are reading this then you are one of 2000 people from all over the world who are currently hitting the web site every month. While the majority of the hits are coming from local sources there are visitors from literally all over the world. One of the most popular international areas is Australia and they can't all be Catriona. More unusual are places like Turkey, Ukraine, Israel to name just three of a list stretching into the thirties. So if you are one of our international visitors you are very welcome - and if you are planning a visit to Northern Ireland look us up at the Mary Peter's Track any Monday night.

LAGAN VALLEY SWEEP THE OSCARS OK  so I am fibbing. Kiera Knightly has not joined Lagan Valley but the club has achieved remarkable success in the local athletics equivelant to the Oscars, the UK Athletics Club Futures Regional Awards. Seven of the seventeen awards in the four categories have gone to the club. The exploits of our Cross Country and Road runners, who are seen circumnavigating the track numerous times on a Monday night, have been rewarded with the Off Road Club of the Year Award. Apart from their Monday night exploits this dedicated band pound the roads and byways for hours on end to achieve their ambitions The Club Officer of the Year accolade goes to long time club treasurer Grace Mills. Grace with her careful book keeping has kept the club in a healthy financial position over the years and has contributed to that financial position herself with her universally acclaimed culinary skills. There can be few athletes or officals who have not gained sustenance from one of Graces's burgers or sandwiches at athletics venues throughout the Province. The epitome of a 'backroom' worker it is good to see her contribution to the club's success recognised on the wider stage. Volunteeer of the Year goes to one of the club's younger athletes Lynsey Glover who has combined her competitive contribution to the club with her willingnes to assist the Federation as a fledgling official. Lynsey is a regular feature at all track and Field meetings carrying out any task allotted to her by the meeting director. Lynsey has recently completed her Level 1 Coaching Award and hopes to add a Level 1 Officials Award to that before the beginnin of the season. In the Offical of the Year category Brian Downing, Club Chairman and Secretary to the Northern Ireland Track and Field Committee, has been awarded the Services to Officiating title. Recently retired, Brian spends countless hours dedicated to ensuring that the Track and Field season runs smoothly and can be found at meetings acting as Meeting Director  which is generally a thankless but vital position.  Brian entered the sport over thirty years ago as a parent to his daughter Joan, a NI Junior International, and has stuck at it ever since. It is therefore interesting that the Officiating Newcomer of the Year Award goes to Liz Glover, the mother of Lynsey. Liz , a former Northern Ireland Long Jump Champion, has taken a back seat from the sport for many years but has returned to the fray showing a particular interest in the use of the Photo Finish set ups (they are all different). Completing the family connection, the Performance Coach of the Year Award goes to John T Glover (he who sends the aforementioned middle distance runners on their multi laps of the track.) And finally, but by no means last, the Services to Coaching Development Award goes to Karen Mills (yes - daughter of Grace.) Karen's impact on the sport and on Lagan Valley since her return from 'exile' has been immense. She has combined  her knowledge and experience as an International sprinter with a professional no-nonsense approach to the sport's development and the results of this can be seen not only on the track in the shape of Amy Foster and other junior sprinters but also in the her administrative work All in all a good season's work not only by those rewarded on this occasion but by the many others who give so freely of their time. This is not by any means a closed society and the club is only too glad to welcome and new volunteers

Club Chairman Brian Downing recieves his award for Oficial of the Year from outgoing NIAF President Dave McKibbin.

ANNUAL GENERAL MEETING  2006

The highlight of the AGM (after the boring bits were over - see COMMITTEE) was the presentation of  prizes.

LISBURN ROAD RELAYS  2005

It is fitting that the Lagan Valley women produced their best ever performance in the heart of the area which bears its name. The Lisburn Road Relays are generally regarded as the unofficial  road relay championships and in thier 45th  year they are certainly the longest standing in the country. This was Lagan Valley's 17th year in the competition and it proved to be a day to remember.

The day got under way with a good performance by Dean Skelton in the U14 boys (with a time of 4:46 for the 1400 metres) followed by the Under 14 Girls race in which   LAgan Valley fell foul of a disaster at the start when the race went over 3 minutes early with several athletes left some way from the start where they were trying to keep warm.

Thankfully things were better for the reamining races. Carla Bowyer was our only runner in the U16 Girls and she ran a good first leg to finish in third place in 3:51, lacking the incentive of having anyone to hand over to.

Four Lagan Valley teams lined up for what was the probably the biggest ever Senior Women's race and such was the quality of the Sky Blue and Navy that at the end of the first leg the 'A', 'B' and 'C' teams held the first three positions with Catriona McCorkell leading all the way in an excellent 7.21 for the 1100 metres course. Maria Skelton backed up her win in Larne the previous week with a fantastic second leg which proved to be the fastest time of the day and Jill Shannon anchored the 'A' team to a massive club record performace of 22.00 minutes just 4 seconds short of the overall local record held by Lisburn since 1988.

Jill Shannon breaking the (metaphorical) tape to win having lapped several other clubs on the last lap.

MAria Skelton is round the bend (sorry roundng the bend) on her way to the fastest time of the day.

The performances of all 12 runners was exceptional with all eleven who have previous experience of the race producing personal bests and Susan Edwards producing an excellent debut performance.

Susan had barely time to catch her breath before she was cheering on husband Andrew and father Gary on the Lagan Valley Veteran squad. At the end of the first of four legs Lagan Valley held the lead through Frank Sharkey with a superb 10:38 clocking. Eric Montgomery improved on last eyars run with a 12:14 followed by Andrew in 12:02 and Gary in 13:07 for an unofficial fourth place.

STUNNING PERFORMANCES IN BRISTOL 2005

The Lagan Valley annual trip to the Great North Run this year was somewhat curtailed by the crazy money being required just to enter so some of the regulars looked around for an alternative and came up with the Bristol Half Marathon on the 2nd October. Over 8500 runners started out with David Wright, Rona Harkens, Ruth Magill, Eric and Kate Montgomery and Carole Briggs carrying the Sky Blue and Navy colours.  First home was Davy in 158th position in 1hr 23:52. Five minutes later Rona and Ruth were producing stunning personal best performances the former finishing 4th in the W35 category in 1:28.43 and Ruth a fantastic 2nd W45 in 1:29.46 (described by Bobby Hanna as the performance of the season). Eric and Kate both performed well considering they were just off the plane from  fortnight in Crete with Eric just outside the 90 minutes mark in 1:30.45 and Kate breaking the 2 hours in 1:58.19 which was a personal best. Not to be outdone Carole completed a hand of 'four aces' by also producing a personal best of 2:04.29.

Five of the Bristol six enjoy a celebratory evening out on the town.                           For the benefit of younger club members the one in the yellow shirt is not the waiter but former world record holder and now media pundit Steve Cram who tried to get eg it out the escape route behind but was grabbed by Carole who, careful observers will note, has not let go.

Meanwhile back at home Suzanne McCormick turned out in the Crawfrodsburn Trail race and won the ladies race by two minutes.

News also from Scotland where Faye McManus continued her big improvement this season with a time just over 46 mins in the Stirling 10K.

A disappointing turn out of only 76 turned up for the Vets CIYMS 5 miler.  Among the field for the two loop course were 4 Lagan Valley runners.  Gary Nicholl, making his V60 debut in the sky blue and navy vest, ran a good steady race.  Terry Eakin, again winning his age group.  Ruth Magill, also 1st in her age group with another PB (John's hill sessions are definitely paying off for her).  Finally, Faye McManus, who this year has come on in leaps and bounds ran a very gutsy race - Eric     

 Terry Eakin          28.57    Ruth Magill          32.39 PB    Gary Nicholl        34.27   

Samuel McConnell 36:24   Faye McManus    36.25

AAA U15 and U17 CHAMPIONSHIPS

Jason Harvey who had won the U17 High Jump at the Celtic Games the previous weekend competed in his own U15 Age Group in the AAA CHampionships in Birmingham and came away with a Silver medal and a lifetime best of 1.90 metres. In the U17 Boys 400 Hurdles Chris Quinn qualified for the final where he was drawnin the outside lane. Despite being disappointed by his sixth place it has been a great season for the MCB student with School's International and Celtic representation.

MASTERS MEDALS

Lagan Valley veteran athletes picked up a host of medals in the Northern ireland Championships at the MAry Peters Track.  Catherine Booth sprinted to a Silver in the 200 and Bronze in the 100 metres. Ruth Magill moved up to the middle distances and took Gold in the 1500 metres and Silver in the 800 metres. In the longest ladies event of the day Rona Harkens ran strongly to take the Gold medal over 3000 metres. On the male side Terry Eakin prepared for the European Champioships in Spain by taking Gold in the 5000 metres ahead of several athletes a lot younger than himself. John T Glover returned to his heel/toe exploits to take Bronze in the 3000 metres walk and claimed a full set by taking Silver in the Discus and Gold in the Hammer (watch out Lynsey I'm catching up).

ALL IRELAND LEAGUE 2005

On a hot sunny afternoon in the famous Billy Morton Stadium in Santry (Dublin) nine Lagan Valley women put in sterling performances (or should that be Euro performances?) to qualify for the National (formerly MAZDA) League Final to be held in Tullamore on Sunday 21st August. Mandy Gault got proceedings underway with a win in the 100 Hurdles but her best performance was later in the afternoon with a personal best and Northern Ireland leading performance in the Long Jump of 5.60 metres. There were also winnng performances from Catriona McCorkell (1500) Jill Shannon (3000) Laura Frey (Triple Jump) and Lynsey Glover (Hammer). Strong performances from Jo Shaw, Rowena Fair,Wendy Davis and Jenny Quinn gave the club one of their best overall results in this competition in what was by far the strongest of the two pools taking palce on the day. It also has to be said that none of these performances would have been possible without the support of club officials and those of the other Northern clubs Abbey and North Down as the support from local officials was very poor.

Friday 5 August - The Ards Charity 5 miler 2005 Eight senior and vets from the middle distance training squad took part.  The course itself was a testing one.  The first mile and a half out along the Portaferry Road to the turn off was flat.   We then climbed up Finlays Road for about a mile.  Another left turn at the top saw the course undulate for about a mile and a half.  I think we were all glad to see the last mile marker because from there on in it was down hill to the finish in Londonderry Park.  This race seems to grow in numbers each year.  Five milers are becoming a very popular distance for road runners.  Apologies to Terry who was not in photo.  We couldn't find him.  As you will see from his race time, he was probably showered and gone by the time the rest of us finished and gathered for the photo shoot - Eric  

PORTAFERRY 10 MILES 2005           Tuesday 19 July 2005 saw eleven seniors and vets from the club take part in the resurrected Portaferry 10 mile road race.  Conditions for racing were ideal, mild with a stiff cooling breeze.  The course was undulating and scenic, well marshalled and virtually traffic free.  Each mile marker was clearly visible but having spoken to and compared splits with some of the other runners, we all agreed the last mile was a bit short.  Lagan Valley featured well in the prizes - 1st lady Suzanne McCormick, 2nd lady Julie Murphy, 1st and 2nd in their vets category respectively, Diane Wilson and Kate Montgomery.  Someone who seems to get faster as he gets older  and 1st in his vet's category, Terry Eakin.  Along with the place prizes there was a commemorative mug and Up & Running provided excellent spot prizes of different pieces of running kit.  Well done to everyone from the club who took part and if you didn't, give it a go next year.  You'll enjoy it, trust me - Eric

Rhona wins category at Ballymoney Wednesday 27 July, the sun shone brightly on the 124 runners who turned up at Ballymoney for the Riada 5 mile road race.  Five vets from the club took part.  The flatish, rural single loop course was liked by all runners.  Well done Springwell Running Club who organised the race.  Rona Harkens ran a PB, as did Carole Briggs.  Rona was 1st lady vet and 2nd lady overall.  A for Kate and Carole, was that they didn't finish on the last page of the results, which goes to prove training does get results in the long run.  Myself and Andrew ran our usual steady race -
Eric  26 

MARATHON MAYHEM

The 24th running of the Belfast Marathon almost ended in disaster when some sado's tried to strike a blow for whatever cause they espoused to. Given that the marathon plus the relay and walk probably had representitves of every known race, creed, gender and political persuasion in the Province it begs the question as to who they people do represent.

Anyway bomb scare apart there was still a lot of criticism directed at the organisers. Some of this criticism was constructive and justified - some of it was just unadulterated garbage from people who maje a living stiring merde. Sure the course was not the most picturesque but this is not supposed to be a guided tour of the city. You can do that very successfully on an open top bus the day before or the day after. And yes in some places there were few, if any spectators.  But even in the heavily populated parts of the course like Sandy Row, the Holy Land and the Falls Road the 'roar of the crowd' did not materialise. The bottom line is that the police will not close the roads and given the geography of the city this makes a viable course well nigh impossible. Stangely the roads can be closed on other occasions during the years for events which are not so all encompassing of the general population!

Lagan Valley however got on with doing what it does best and that is running successfully. The women (Catriona, Rona, Fionulla, Julie and Wendy) retained their team title in style and by a very long margin. The Mixers (Terry, David,Barbara,Phil and Sarah) finished an excellent fifth in their category but things might have been different had the Movers not missed the changeover in the  middle of the madness at Gideon's Green. They  (Suzanne, Eric,Frank,Seamus and Patricia) however were not far behind. The Shakers (Diane,Hazel,Dawn, Kate, and Ossie) ran in the open category and held their own very well.

In the marathon itself Suzanne was our first runner home in a magnificent time of 3hrs 4 mins which given the extra 1180 metres was worth under 3 hours. She finished in fourth overall and easily the first local woman. Also finishing the 27 miles! were Bobby Hanna (his second in a few weeks) Andrew Edwards and Paul Calvert.

WENDY and CATRIONA IN FINE FORM

Wendy Davis celebrated her first track race on home soil for several years with a lifetime best over 1500 metres at the River Rock meeting to go to the top of the Northern Ireland rankings with 4:38.6. Catriona McCorkell also went to the number one spot in the 3000 with a personal best of 10:26 at the first Golden Four League. This means that Lagan valley athletes currently lead the rankings at 1500,3000, 10000 (Jill Shannon) and marathon as well as Long Jump , Triple Jump and Heptathlon with Mandy Gault in the USA.

RELAY WINS FOR JUNIOR GIRLS

Lagan valley took two sets of Gold medals in the Northern Ireland Age Group Relay Championships at the Antrim Forum. The 4 x 100 metres for 1992/1993 saw the LV quartet demolish the opposition with a display of very slick baton passing. The 1988/1989 4 x 300 was the race of the day with the lead changing several before Laura Frey forced her way into the lead in the last few meters for a temendous victory.

LAGAN VALLEY ALL TIME LISTS

The Male Age Group All Time lists 1989-2004 are finally up on the web site.  It is hard to believe that the club has been going for 16 years. There are some top class performances included in the lists. Sadly a lot of  the athletes named have given up the sport while some others are currently competing for other clubs.

Thanks to a letter I received from Colette Monaghan I have been able to update the Female All Time Lists. Colette quite rightly pointed out that her best 800 metres performance as a Minor was not listed. For this I apologise to Colette as her performance is in fact a club record and to miss a performnce of this standard is inexcusable. As it turned out I had missed quite a few performnces from that season - the wine in France that year must have been a particularly strong vintage!

CLUB TRACKSUITS

The   club tracksuits are still available and Nicky McWilliams is taking orders. If you don't want to be disappointed get your order in now. Nicky has a direct line to Santa Claus for those looking for a great Christmas present.

CLUB VESTS

New club vests are available Price £14.  Contact your coach who will arrange for the vest to be delivered. Shorts are also available at £12.  New tacksuits have been designed and are available price £40 from Nicky McWilliams

AGE GROUPS 2006

NORTHERN IRELAND FEDERATION RACES (including Championships)

ULSTER SCHOOLS CHAMPIONSHIPS (Under 13/15/17/19 1st July 2006)

YOUNG ATHLETES LEAGUE  (Under 13/15/17  Midnight 31st Aug/1Sept 2006)

EASY ISNT IT?????????????