The Strabane-Lifford Half Marathon

The Spartans have done a good job at the Strabane Lifford half marathon on May, 15 2016. Gary Slevin finished 4th with a time of 73.47. The best time was obtained by the winner of the race, Stephen Duncan from Omagh Harriers: 69.47. Women didn’t do as well but the female Spartans still managed to enter the top 10 by finishing 9th with a time of  75.21 belonging to Natasha Adams. Don’t worry girls, you will catch up!

marry-peters-track

The Inishowen Half Marathon

On May 12th, there was the Inishowen Half Marathon where the City of Derry Spartans was mainly represented by Mark Mullan in the men’s race and Jackie McMonagle in the women’s race. The course had plenty of portions that required climbing thus putting additional strain on the athletes. In spite of this, the competitors managed to finish the race with their heads held up high. The top two men were Dan Tanue and Eric Keogh, followed by Gallagher and our guy Mullan with a time of 81:18. He was a bit disappointed of the time but at least he finished 4th.

As for the women’s race, Sandra McKeever took the title from McMonagle finishing aprox. 4 minutes before her. Don’t give up Jackie, you will face with Sandra again and it’s in your power to get a different outcome. The McKeever girl better watch her back because the Spartans don’t give up, they’re warriors.

The Mary Peters Track Meet

On May 8th, the Derry Spartans have been wearing the red colors with pride at the Mary Peters Track meet. Fintan Stewart had a great performance finishing the 1500m race in 3 minutes and 57 seconds. He has good chances to qualify at the European Youth Games that are just around the corner, so we’ll watch this one closely because he definitely shows potential.

However, we must not forget the man who trained Fintan to achieve his success: Sean Laverty. It’s sad that coaches are rarely known by the wide public. The entire attention usually goes to the athlete and if you think about it, a great part of his success is his merit but what about the person who helped you get where you are now? That being said, you sir, have done a good job training this man. Keep up the good work!

Worthy mentions

At the Belfast International Track Meet, Spartans performed well. We are talking about a young lad named Stephen McGahey who got a 11.45 time in the 100m race and about Paul Mc Cafferty who finished the 800m race in 2m and 11secs. Niomi Morgan also did well in the 100m hurdles race considering the weather conditions that were far from perfect.  There also were several local 5 km races where Michael Murphy and Christopher McPeake made some pretty good runs. The fans thank you all for your efforts and we wish all the Spartan warriors good luck in the future races! Let’s show them what Spartans are made of!