Weekend Roundup
16 June 2025
For the third year running the BMC came to Belfast and in association with Lagan Valley they put together some excellent races, with competitors from far away as Germany and Australia taking part. Despite persistent heavy rain throughout the day there were many excellent performances from our local athletes.
The feature event was the John Allen Memorial Mile which saw a return to racing for Nick Griggs (CNDR) who produced an excellent performance in to win from Scotland’s Andrew Magill in 3.55.97. Further down the field Frank Buchanen (St Michaels) had a great run achieving the European U20 B standard for his 1500m split of 3.46.11.
In the women’s 1500m Eimear Maher (DSD) had a very impressive victory from Cara Laverty (Finn Valley) whose time of 4.16.37 was a pb and a European U20 B standard.
In the men’s 800m A race Dylan McBride (COL) who has returned from his base in the US had a breakthrough run with 1.49.96 which was his first time going sub-1.50. In the B race it was a similar story for Patrick Sheridan (Newcastle) who also broke the 1.50 barrier for the first time running 1.49.81 to finish second.
In the women’s 3000m Hannah Gilland (Annadale) and Roise Roberts (CNDR) both smashed their previous bests with 9.23.70 and 9.27.39. Roise’s time was also a standard for the European U23 Championships.
Overall, in the BMC races 47% of athletes achieved personal bests and there were nine athletes who achieved qualifying standards for the various European Age Group Championships.
In the sprints despite the heavy rain there were still some excellent runs. In the women’s 400m Irish International Rachel McCann (North Down) had an emphatic win in 53.76 from Michelle Duggan (UCD). In the men’s 400m Adam Courtney (Ballymena) was close to his seasons best running 48.32 to finish fourth.
In Malta Jenna Breen (COL) had another sub 54 second clocking in the women’s 400m finishing 3rd in 53.91.