Jim Mckeown Running Group

A selection of pics from Armagh earlier this evening - some great performances and new PBs - we won the Men’s Open 3k Team title for the 4th year in a row I think just pipping Annadale by the most slender of margins 3s! Team was led home by Alex Downey running 8.53 and a massive new PB. We also won the Men’s Jun B team race category (to be officially confirmed) - there didn’t appear to be any team prizes for Jun A - if there was, I believe we might have won both of those categories. In the Men’s 5k there were big breakthrough runs for Stephen Lyster 14.36 and Ruairi Hollywood 14.52 - Marianne Doherty was our top finisher in the ladies international 3k running 10.02, just ahead of Freya Woodhead 10.09 and Katie Keown 10.27 which placed the team in a very respectable 6th place - full results available on the Myrunresults website - Armagh never fails to deliver and it was another fantastic evening of racing that saw two outstanding local winners in Nick Griggs (CNDR) and Emily Haggard-Kearney (NBH) - thanks as always to Armagh AC for their slick organisation and hospitality - super job tonight everyone 😊

What a performance by these young ladies who represented Ireland at the European Club Cross Country Championships on Sunday where they finished in an outstanding 5th place in the Junior Women’s U20 Race. I’ll try to get a more fulsome report out in due course, but needless to say we are all incredibly proud of them at Lagan Valley AC

Happy New Year, everyone.

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Good finish to the season for these boys picking up the team win at Sunday’s Drogheda 5k - Noah Kavanagh finished 5th in 15.00, Stephen Lyster 6th in 15.03 and Oisin McGloin 7th in 15.13 - also Jack McCausland 16.53 and Marianne Doherty 18.25 (all pictured) and Jessica Blaney 20.33. A few other results over recent weeks that I need to mention - at the Seeley Cup 10k there were a couple of big PBs - Ruairi Hollywood was 13th in 31.40 and Noah Kavanagh 11th, ran at the time I believe, a new club 10k road race record of 31.21, only for this to be claimed by Stephen Lyster’s 31.18 at the Telford 10k last week- super proud of everyone’s achievements this year 😊

Super run from Freya Woodhead (recently crowned Irish U19 XC Champion) at Victoria Parkrun this morning first female home with a 17.21 5k split - 2nd overall was the fast improving Uilleac Fitzpatrick 16.30 5k split, pictured with Olivia Morgan who finished strong in 19.35. Andrew Gawn took first place at Wallace PR in 19.09.

Golden Weekend for Lagan Valley AC

On Saturday at the Acorns AC Irwin Speers XC Meet (Cookstown) we had a good team win in the Senior Men’s race with max participation points and a good return to form for Tommy Arthur, 2nd overall (pictured with the Trophy).

On Sunday we then journeyed to Abbottstown for the National Novice and Uneven Ages XC Championships. Early on, there were a few eye-catching performances from our younger athletes, in particular new member Katie Napier finishing 13th in the U17 race running out of her age group; the U17 Boys battled well for a hard-fought 4th place, just outside the medals – your day will come.

However, it was the U19 Girls race that started a gold-rush for the Club, with Freya Woodhead (pictured - photo credit Perri Williams) taking an outstanding individual win, in what were extremely tough underfoot conditions. Freya is the epitome of hard work and resilience and so deserving of this win after a challenging season last year – many congratulations Freya you are an outstanding role model for our younger juniors. Freya’s performance also led our girls to the U19 team title with Olivia Morgan 9th and Aoife Magee 35th; the girls also helped Antrim to victory in the County championship and a win for Ulster in the inter-Provincial Championship.

Those performances certainly seemed to inspire our Novice Men as they tackled the Irish Men’s Novice for only the 2nd time in the Club’s history. Despite finishing 3rd last year, we appeared to slip under the radar per the pre-race reports. The men got off to a flyer, and we packed well early on with 4 in the top 10 and that’s pretty much how it unfolded at the end of a gruelling 6km. It wasn’t without some drama though with Stephen Lyster (pictured on the podium) securing an individual silver medal following a titanic struggle with Clonliffe’s Mahad Egaal down the home straight – a finish for the ages! After a nervous wait the result was called and with that another bit of history for Lagan Valley AC taking a first Novice title with 30 points (team pictured post race), just ahead of our friends from Nenagh and Clonliffe. Noah Kavanagh 7th, Ruairi Hollywood 9th and Noah Sheridan 12th had exceptional runs and contributed to a fabulous team performance, bringing the curtain down on what’s been a memorable championship xc season for the Club.

Thank you to everyone who has raced with such pride and conviction this year in the sky blue and navy and to the extended coaching team without whom all this success would not be possible.

Congratulations to all our winners, nominees, newly appointed Committee Members and re-elected office bearers at last night’s Lagan Valley AC AGM & Awards, special mention to those in the endurance group - Marianne Doherty Most Improved Female (joint award with Hannah Cochrane), Scott Owen Most Improved Male, Katie Keown U17 Girls Winner, John Jackson and Kate Bradley our respective Masters Winners, and Stephen Lyster, recipient of the Brian Downing Endurance Award - pictured is proud dad John accepting the trophy on Stephen’s behalf - other winners included Beibhinn Bourke and Adam Hanna who have recently graduated from Jacqueline Murtagh’s Lvac Minis Group and a final well done to Jacqueline a very worthy recipient of the Billy Black Coaching Award - Jacqueline and her team do fantastic work providing a great environment for our young athletes to thrive and enjoy their athletics!