Gold Medal success for Helen & Mairead

Congratulations to Helen McParland and Mairead Grant on being part of the winning Our Ladys team in the recent regional and Ulster schools cross country championships. Excellent work.

Indoor Champs

Two of our young athletes made the start line for the 800 mts in the Oddessy last Saturday. Aislinn Crossey & Helen McParland were the pride of Newry A.C. with their excellent performances and as representitives of the club. Both had worked hard over the Christmas break and were both very nervous on the day. Helen had been training to a 3 minute program and when she broke the tape in 2' 55" it was a brilliant effort and more encouraging was the fact that her last lap was the quickest! With 4 heats and only the heat winners guaranteed a place in the final Aislinn faced reigning champ Rachael Henderson from Willowfield A.C. A bad start didn't help and starting the last lap it looked like a hard task for Ais. It was a startled champ when the Newry vest came storming past on the home straight! Fastest heat by some margin too. 2 hours later in the final Aislinn ran the race from hell! Another bad start, running in the third lane on the bend and getting caught on the inside and having to check and come around the outside on the last bend......and she still came home with a brilliant silver medal! What a stunning run! Aislinn will never run as naievly again and all the competitors in the final will know that. A time in the fnal of 2'31.9" was a pb by an incredible 7 seconds and in 9 months was a reduction of 17 seconds! We'll be working on a futher reduction.............Well done to our girls and thanks to all who traveled to the event to support them, as always it really helps.