Ballymena Runners Awards Dinner 2022
The club met at the weekend to recognise club performance in 2022. This was the first awards event since 2019 and recognises club member’s achievements as we return to some form of normality.
The event was organised by Emma Donnelly (Women’s’ Captain) and the MC for the awards event was Ben Morrow (Men’s’ Captain)
Zak Hanna and Ben Morrow
Our Special Guest was Zak Hanna, a friend of our Club, and multiple winner of Race Over The Glens trail race. Zac is now a professional athlete and attended the event fresh from finishing in 5th Place in the World Mountain Running championships in Thailand.
Overall Male Athlete of the Year - Kieran Scullion
Kieran and Zak
Kieran has increased his focus again this past year. He has increased his training in an effort to reduce his times and this is starting to pay off. He had achieved pbs this year in the mile and in the 5k. He is consistently the first Ballymena Runner home in races. He has regularly represented the club in the Athletics NI XC league and was recently selected to represent Northern Ireland in the British and Irish Masters XC race in Dublin. This is the 2nd year in a row that the award went to Kieran Scullion.
Overall Female Athlete of the Year - Kerry Bamber
Kerry
The winner of this award shouldn't really be a surprise. For the past few years Kerry has consistently ran fast times at the track, in 5k's and 10ks and has been competitive nationally in XC events. This year was no different, she broke the club 1500m record in August at the Mary Peters Track achieving a time of 4:46. Kerry had an outstanding performance at the Bobby Rea International Event achieving 14th place, and she was the fastest Ballymena runner at the NI & Ulster Relay championships.
Foundation Section Most Improved Female - Mairead Agnew
Mairead
Mairead has overcome ill health to persevere and build back up her strength again. She has been a consistent presence in training and regularly turns up at the Athletics NI cross country league races to earn a point for the team.
Foundation Section Most Improved Male – Andrew Stewart
Andrew (r)
Shown great desire to improve and learn, committing himself to most training session. He has competed in ROTG and other similarly challenging events and has stretched himself beyond what he has done previously.
Development Section Most Improved Male - Konrad Walder
Konrad
Konrad achieved a time of 3.48 at Belfast 2022, a PB of 11 minutes. He has also achieved 1.36 for a half marathon. He was an official 2:00 hour pacer at Lisburn Half Marathon 2022 and now leads the club training 9:00 minute Monday night group. He regularly runs on Sunday mornings with the group and always puts in the extra miles.
Development Section Most Improved Female - Victoria Ratner
Victoria and Zak
Victoria initially started out swimming and after developing an interest in triathlon, she joined Ballymena Runners at the end of lockdown and has been steadily improving. She has taken her 5k time down from over 30 mins to under 25 mins. She has also been reducing her 10k and half marathon times and has recently completed a Marathon in under 4 hours. She is now running with the 9:00 minute mile training group.
Performance Section Most Improved Male - Robert Clyde
Robert and Zak
This was a hotly contested category. Making the shortlist we had the likes of Tony Scullion, Brendan Kerr, Stephen Gage. But over the last couple of years Robert has been devoting himself more and more to his pursuit of better times across 5k and 10k. He loves nothing more than getting down the Glens on a Sunday morning. He is at most club training sessions and his commitment is paying off. This year he has taken his 5k parkrun time down from 22:09 to 18:58. He also recently secured international selection for the Northern Ireland Masters XC team.
Performance Section Most Improved Female - Kathleen Law
In another competitive category Kathleen has had an impressive year. She has had pbs in 5k, 5 miles, and 10k. She was the winner of the Crebilly 5k and the NWMRT Broughshane 5k.
Performance of the Year Male - George Buckley
George
The club had some excellent performances in a number of races this year, so this Category was probably the most difficult category to choose a winner. The winner of this year’s award is an ultra-runner who has competed in some of the toughest races across UK and Ireland, races like the Cornwall 100km. The performance for which this award presented is for a race in the ‘We Run Wild’ Trilogy series in which he ran 107 miles in 29 hours and 38 mins, a remarkable achievement.
Performance of the Year Female - Eimear Nicholl
Kerry (L) and Eimear (R)
Again, there were some great performances this year from Sharon Leetch, Wendy McCauley, Claire Martin, Ruth Aiken, and others. But this award was for setting a new club record over 3000m at Mary Peters track, achieving a time of 10:08.
Curran Cup
The ‘Curran Cup’ was donated by Club lifetime member Ray Curran to recognise performance in the Cross-Country Masters racing.
Paddy and Zak
Curran Cup Male M40 Cross Country Performance winner was Paddy Millar with best male master (M40+) at NI & Ulster Masters XC Championships.
Curran Cup Female M40 Cross Country was won by Brigid Quinn
Brigid and Zak
Outstanding Achievement Award - Ruth Aiken
Ruth and Zak
This award was for an achievement that the club felt merited its own category. Ruth travels all over the country running up and down big hills and mountains, and that’s some achievement for an ex-sprinter. This award is for achieving a bronze medal as part of the GB & NI Vet 45 team in the recent World Masters Mountain Running Championship.
New Club Records
New club records were also celebrated including:
Female 1500m Kerry Bamber 4:26
Female 3000m Eimear Nicholl 10:08
Female 10-mile Sharon Leetch 67:56
Female Marathon Sharon Leetch 3:05:02 (2021)
Male Marathon Ryan Marshall 2:34:59
Kerry, Eimear, Sharon and Ryan
BRAC International Selected Athletes
Our International athletes
Club medals were presented by Zac Hanna to all our club runners selected to represent Northern Ireland or Ireland. These included Kieran Scullion, Noel Connor, Ray Curran, Robert Clyde, Geraldine Quigley, Brigid Quinn, and Linda Petticrew
Our international athletes
Unsung Hero award - Emma Donnelly
Emma was recognised for her tireless work behind the scenes, often without much recognition. Emma regularly leads and coordinates club training, working as part of the coaching committee. Emma is also one of the outgoing Club Captains team. Emma manages the club kit and organised Saturday’s dinner and awards event at the Wild Duck Inn in Portglenone.
Club Person of the year - Susanna Allen
Over the last couple of years Susanna has been a remarkable servant of the club. She has been the backbone of the coaching committee, coordinating and managing the admin duties and training rotas. Susanna was successful in securing the Ballymena Showgrounds for club training. Last year she was instrumental in getting good turnouts at the Athletic NI cross country events. She is immersed in Parkrun, and she selflessly leads foundation and development groups regularly. If there's something needs done Susanna will make sure it’s done!