IN a weekend full of standout performances by NI and Ulster athletes, with impressive results on the track, indoors, and in cross-country competition both at home and abroad, the star performance came from Olympic 4x400m squad member Rachel McCann (North Down/QUB) with the Ian Neely coached athlete smashing her Personal Best indoors and out with a dominant 53.31 second run to win the Irish University Championships in Dublin.
This puts Rachel, competing for Queen’s, in a strong position to make the European Indoor 4x400m team going to next month’s championships in the Netherlands.
Elsewhere, NI and Ulster women’s U20s competed at the Celtic Cross Country International which was held in conjunction with the UK Cross Challenge and provided a high level of competition for the local athletes.
In the women’s U20 race, Lucy Foster (Willowfield) finished a very strong ninth place with Elsa Moore (Lifford and Strabane) 24th, Ava Diver (Beechmount) 25th and Katie Graham (Lagan Valley) 28th.
Roise Roberts (Candour), representing the Irish U23 team, had an excellent run finishing ninth overall and second U23 in the women’s senior race. Rebecca Rossiter (Candour) finished 31st. In the U17 races, Madison Welby (COLAC) ran very strongly to finish sixth, helping the Irish team to victory. In the same race Kari Foster (Willowfield), representing the Irish development team, finished 22nd.
Meanwhile Ellie McCartney backed up recent strong performances with a 4.26m third place performance at the Air Loughborough event.
Roisin Flanagan (Finn Valley) kicked off her 2025 indoor season with an 9.03.46 clocking over 3000m in Metz.
NI and Ulster U20s team at the Celtic Cross Country International
