Athletics: Maxwell performs well for Northern Ireland

Justin Maxwell set the ball rolling with his selection for the 55k Ultra Trail Race at the Commonwealth Mountain & Ultra Distance Championships in North Wales recently.

He lined up alongside Don Travers (Newry City Runners) and Dale Mathers (Newry City Runners) in the three-man team, competing against some of the world’s finest Ultra runners. The challenging course was five laps, measuring approximately 11km per lap on mixed terrain including a difficult sandy beach loop into a strong head wind.

Maxwell and team-mates Travers and Mathers came through the first lap together looking strong in 44:45

Justin completed lap two in 1:31:36 and lap three in 2:20:54 and, while continuing to gain places, was falling slightly behind Travers who was having an excellent race. Mathers was just behind and looked good going into the last two laps.

Lap four saw the Northern Ireland men continue to move up the field as their controlled start and team work in the opening laps began to pay dividends. Travers was the first to begin his final lap, passing through the feed station in 3:11:23 with Maxwell just behind in 3:13:54 and Mathers in 3:18:23.

After seeing so many places change throughout the race the excited crowd waited eagerly on the first finishers coming onto the atmospheric finishing straight. This turned out to be Welsh runner Richard Gardiner, who claimed first place in an excellent time of 3:29:55.

Travers was the first Northern Ireland runner to cross the line in 4:07:10 (17th place), followed by Justin Maxwell who passed South African, Amon Bongani Mismango strongly in the final metres to finish in 4:11:07 (18th place). Mathers crossed the finish line in 4:19:26 (20th place), securing fifth place for the Northern Ireland men.