The 2017 Ulster Cross Country championships were an historic day for Banbridge Academy as four individuals and one team, qualified for the Irish Championships, the Academy’s best return in recent memory, if not ever.

The star performances were once again from Rebekah Nixon and Patrick McNiff winning gold and silver respectively in the Senior Girls and Boys events. For many years now these two have been regular medal winners in Cross Country and on the track but this should not take away from their fine achievements again at a windy Mallusk and Rebekah once again showed her class to beat a very competitive field and take the gold and Patrick also ran a strong race to claim the Silver. It is also of note that Patrick has another year left in this category. These two have been at the vanguard of a renaissance of cross country running in the Academy in recent years and their achievements cannot be overstated.

But this year was made extra special as their fine performance were backed up brilliantly by Bethany Nixon, Rebekah’s youngers sister, finishing 6^th in the Junior girls race and Nadia Radcliffe finishing 8^th in the Minor Girls race, both of whom qualify for the Irish Championships. But the Academy athletes were not finished there, and to add to this wonderful success the Junior Girls team, headed by Bethany, also finished in third place overall to claim Bronze. The rest of the team were Ruby McNiff, Julia Knox, Kathryn McGrath and Lucy Bradshaw. This is the first time in history that an Academy team has qualified for the Irish Schools Finals; a wonderful achievement by a very talented and hard working group of young girls.

So eight Academy runner’s qualified from the district to run at the Ulster’s and all eight have once again qualified from the Ulster’s to run at the Irish. This is testament to how strong the County Down district really is and is a wonderful achievement from the Academy athletes.

The Irish Championships this year are being held at Mallusk in Belfast on Saturday 11^th March and the finest athletes from the isle will gather to race, it is a wonderful opportunity for the Academy athletes to pit themselves against the best runners in the country.