Bangor Classic 10K

County Antrim Harriers had an eight strong team out on Saturday morning 25th September 2010 at the Bangor Classic 10k Road Race, a well organised event as usual by the promoting North Down Athletics Club.

Representing the club at this high profile event in the athletics calendar were Russell Hughes, Michael Matthews, Ricky Mason, Greg Hopkins, Henry Pritchard, Gillian Hanna, Roberta Henry, and Irene Downey. The race starts at Castle Park, and goes down Abbey Street to Bangor seafront and heads out towards Ballyholme and thence to Groomsport before turning back towards Bangor along the esplanade at Ballyholme and the finish at Ward Park. Weather conditions were excellent in comparison to the previous Saturday’s torrential rain, and as expected the club’s top runner and coach Russell Hughes was the first of the CAH contingent to reach the finish line in an excellent time of 35:46, to be placed 26th out of almost 900 competitors.

Next home and running side by side were Michael Matthews and Ricky Mason, who were credited with times of 44:54 and 44:55 respectively, with Greg Hopkins just over a minute behind and delighted given his problems of late to finish in 46:11. Next to cross the finish line was Irene Downey in 48:46, followed by an excellent 51:30 and the 1st V70 prize by the amazing Henry Pritchard, with Gillian Hanna and Roberta Henry not far behind and running well to finish in times of 54:36 and 58:55 respectively.

With Downey, Hanna and Henry all achieving personal best times, and Henry Pritchard clinching his now almost customary 1st V70 prize, it was another good day’s racing by the Ballyclare based club.