Over 20 Newcastle AC juniors braved the start line across all races from U-10 to U-20 at the Ulster and NI Cross Country Championships recently.
The most anticipated race for the Newcastle Juniors was the U-12 boys’ race. Harry McVeigh was going for his third NI and Ulster title in a row and everyone felt every emotion going, except Harry himself.
In his usual cool and calm approach to racing, he laughed and giggled with team mate Rossa McAleenan as coach Grant sent them off to the line with her words of wisdom and the boys smiling back and shouting “we will.”
As the horn went off, Harry powered up the front straight and pulled the crowd with him.
As they emerged from the trees with 500m to go, Harry was accompanied by one other and over the next 300m they played cat and mouse.
With 200m to go, it looked like Harry had used up his reserves and the young man from ‘Keep er Lit’ running club was four strides in front leading into the final hill.
If you could bottle and sell what was going through his head in that final 200m, you’d be a millionaire.
Hills are what makes Harry spectacular and he entered the final 75m shoulder to shoulder with Donal. This season he has beaten Harry on track, he edged slightly ahead and thinking the race was over, put his arms up to celebrate the win.
But as Harry well knows, the race isn’t over until it’s over and to never stop running until you are over the line.
As the arms went up for what he expected would be the perfect race picture finish, Harry kept his composure and dipped for the line and by hundredths of a second, won his third NI and Ulster title in 4.14, 20 seconds quicker than last year on the same course.
Read how the other Newcastle AC competitors got on at the event in the full story in the current issue of the Mourne Observer.
