NBH Victorious in the Seeley Cup

The harriers were celebrating in style this weekend after the men’s team secured victory in Saturday’s prestigious Seeley Cup. The ladies team also ran strongly to claim a fine second place. With a total of 47 NBH athletes competing in the sell-out race and coaches and other club members supporting around the course it was a great occasion for everyone associated with the club.

In the men’s race, with 6 to score, the leading NBH athletes were Andrew Annett (31:18), Mark McKinstry (31:25), Lindsay Gordon (31:29), Philip Goss (32:27), John Black (32:50) and Joe Malone (33:28). Such strength in depth (with all 6 in the top 30 places) saw a comfortable victory over City of Derry AC Spartans.

In the ladies race with the top 3 to score, the NBH ladies finished a narrow second to Beechmount Harriers thanks to Gladys Ganiel (36:19), Louise Smith (39:24) and Sarah-Jane McFadden (41:05).

Congratulations also to club athletes who ran new personal bests including Sandy Plumb (45:20), Una McConnell (43:13), Elaine Holmes (48:59), and Emma Sheehy (47:08).

In the veteran categories there were further fine performances from David Clarke 2nd M55 (35:51), Gladys Ganiel 1st F40 (36:19), Louise Smith 1st F45 (39:24), Penny Lindsay 3rd F50 (41:27) and Jack Carberry 2nd M70 (46:20).

The Seeley Cup is traditionally the last major road race of the season, this year also incorporating the NI and Ulster 10k Road Championships. As such it attracted the province’s top athletes ensuring a fast, competitive race from the off. The multi-lap format, along with the small climb entering the park from the Ormeau Road side added to the challenge of judging race pace with many competitors having to dig really deep on the 2nd and 3rd laps to hang onto their positions.

Full results for club athletes were:

The Seeley Cup was the final race of the keenly contested 2017 Novosco 10k Grand Prix series which is based on the best 6 age graded performances over the 15 races of the series. Congratulations to Davey Clarke who topped the final standings with 88.72% and to Laurence Johnston in 5th place with 85.47%.