Weekly Report - 16th November 2025
It has been relatively quiet on the racing front the past couple of weekends, which was an ideal opportunity for Springwell to hold their annual dinner dance and awards night. Two weeks ago saw several Springwell runners make their way to Tollymore Forest in County Down, where there were races of several distances on offer, and Fiona Prue was in England on Saturday just passed representing Northern Ireland in the British and Irish Masters International Cross Country.
Annual Dinner Dance & Awards
Springwell hosted their annual dinner dance and awards night at the Bushtown Hotel on the outskirts of Coleraine on Saturday evening. Runners swapped their running shoes for their dancing shoes as they met to celebrate their efforts on the roads, mountains and trails over the past 12 months.
There were members from all four of the club’s areas present, with Peter Jack as master of ceremonies for the presentation of awards. The area prizes were presented by Springwell’s Area Vice Captains, with Vice Chair Darren Walsh presenting the remainder of the awards.
Following the presentation of the awards, the club held the draw for their allocated London Marathon place. Gael Butcher was the lucky recipient of one of the club places in London Marathon for 2025, and Gael had the honour of drawing the name of the lucky recipient for 2026. Congratulations to Aaron Moffatt on getting this place. Aaron will be getting geared up begin training now early in the new year for this.
Full list of award winners below:
Club Person of the Year: Deborah McPhee
Female Athlete of the Year: Fiona Prue
Male Athlete of the Year: Ciaran Ferris
Road Runner of the Year: Christopher McNickle
Mountain Runner of the Year: Carolyn Crawford
Best Newcomer: Mark Gardiner
Female Club Championship: Deborah McPhee
Male Club Championship Winner: Adrian Finlay
Ballymoney Member of the Year: Dara Watterson
Coleraine Member of the Year: Cathy Adams
Garvagh Member of the Year: Leighann Barker
Limavady Member of the Year: Alison Duncan
British & Irish Masters International Cross Country
Roundhay Park in Leeds hosted this years British & Irish Masters International Cross Country. This is an event in which male and female athletes are selected to represent Northern Ireland, Ireland, England, Scotland and Wales, and compete against each other in age categories from over 35 to over 80 years old.
Roundhay Park often hosts the English National Cross Country Championship, and the course here is a hilly one that was made more challenging on Saturday with very soft ground as a result of the heavy rain over the past week in England.
Springwell were immensely proud that Fiona Prue was selected this year to represent Northern Ireland in the F55 category. Fiona had a fantastic performance at the event coming home as second scorer for the Northern Ireland F55 team in a time of 0:28:47, helping her team to 3rd place and a bronze medal. Fiona was 90th overall in the race, and 8th in her age category.
Tollymore Forest Races
Last Saturday 26extreme hosted a full suite of trail races in the picturesque Tollymore Forest. Runners had their pickings from 10km up to the 39mile Ultra Marathon. Conditions were perfect for a day in the trails amongst the autumn leaves, and with heavy rain the day and evening before made it just a little bit slick.
39mile Ultra Marathon
First off at 8am was the ultra-marathon runners with three loops of Tollymore Forest and 4,500ft of elevation gain awaiting them. In his sixth ultra race of the year Shirhaan Hameed was in fine form and it showed, finishing 6th overall in 6:08:48.
The return to form continues strongly for Bernadette Quinn. After a tough 2nd loop of the course, Bernie had a stronger 3rd loop and stormed to a podium 2nd place female (24th overall) in 6:42:30.
It was ultra marathon debuts for James Hughes and Carolyn Crawford. James Hughes showed great endurance completing his first ultra in 8:36:41 and 72nd overall. After a long season in the mountains, the debut ultra wasn't to be for Carolyn as she retired after 26miles.
Marathon
It was two loops of Tollymore with 3,000ft of elevation for the marathon runners. Shaun Carton was the sole Springwell representative in this race, and he finished 62nd overall in 4:44:04.
Half Marathon
The largest field of the day was the half marathon, starting at midday and with over half of the day’s runners racing the half distance. A very strong run for Rodney McPhee saw him finish 4th overall in 1:33:34. Next back in the half was Mervyn and Cathy Adams who finished T-83rd in 1:59:06. Another return from the sidelines saw David McGaffin finish 94th in 2:00:50. Deborah McPhee noted at the end it was a tough day at the office but still had a grand day out finishing 107th in 2:02:55.
10k
Last but not least, it was the 10k race which took a slightly different route to the other races of the day but still over 600ft of elevation gain greeted the runners. Making her return to running after an ankle injury sidelining her for 4 months, Fiona Martin couldn't have asked for a better day finishing on the podium as 2nd female (8th overall) in 52:33.
