Lagan Valley / British Milers Club (NI) 70th Anniversary Meeting
Lagan Valley in conjunction with The British Milers Club (NI) played host to Northern Irelands biggest Track & Field Meeting of the year. The meeting celebrated the 70th Anniversary of the first sub 4 minute mile and the first sub 5 minute miles 1954.
Meeting Managers John Glover and Mark Kirk did a suberb job in organinsing an extremely successful event which resulted in the first sub 4 minute miler in Nortern Ireland for over a quarter of a century with 5 men breaking the barrier.
The weather was kind and resulted in a host of lifetime bests, age group records and international qualifying times.
Lagan Valley had a brilliant day both on the track and in the field.
Lughaidh Mallon went 4.02.17 in the Mile for a 29s PB and new Club Record (dipping for a 3.45.64 1500m split en route to a 2nd World U20 B Standard) – Noah Harper (Mile/1500) and Olivia Morgan (800) also produced PBs which now see them top their respective age group events on the current NI Power of 10 rankings – Rhys McManus also had a fine run for a double PB and there was a very encouraging SB from James Ashley over 800 in 1.56.70 and it was great to see Tommy Arthur getting his season back on track with a 4.28.45 mile. Frank McGrath was rewarded with a 5s PB in the 3000m with a very impressive 8.26.58; Katie Keown ran strongly to once again lower her 1500 PB and Jude McGann dug deep for a new PB in the 800.
The meet also included the inaugural NI & Ulster Mixed 4×4 relay – the Lagan Valley A team of Laura Frey, Emma Guion, Andrew Proctor and Malte Hinrichs won a brilliant gold and were well supported by a young Jun B team in 4th comprising Ben Gillen, James Ashley, Isa McCarron and Olivia Morgan.
Erin McMahon, Anna Hogg, Andrew Proctor and Kriss Nelson had fast runs in the 100m while Laura Frey, Emma Guion, Malte Hinrichs and Joe Frey took on the longer 400m also with strong results.
In the field there were two LVAC vests on the podium in the Ladies Hammer with Aida Zukauskaite taking the silver and Lynsey Glover taking Bronze.
Jason Craig also had a podium finish with 2nd place in the mans Javelin with a PB of 41.17m
In the men’s long jump Alex Watson had a great jump of 5.79m with Joe Fry finishing as top master with 3.91m
