International stars light up the Mall at Armagh

Tori Raitanen of Finland and Steph Twell representing Scotland led a feast of record breaking in the 29th Armagh International Road Races round the spectacular floodlit Mall.

By The Newsroom

Published 15th Feb 2019, 21:12 BST

Updated 18th Feb 2019, 10:44 BST

Raitanen took over on the last lap after Polands Kristian Zalewski had led early on. He crossed the line in 13:43 to knock an amazing 11 seconds off the old record set by Dave Nightingale of USA in 2009. Adam Craig of Scotland came second with defending champion Sam Stabler from England third in the same time of 13:45 Jon Mellor and Andrew Heyes were next.

Ten athletes were under the former record with a massive 113 breaking 15 minutes.

Steph Twell was always at the front as she coerced the 3k distance in 8:59 to equal the course record. Jess Judd repeated her runner up from last year with Amy Griffiths and Kate Avery next ahead of Lauren Heyes who like her husband Andrew came fifth.

Emma Mitchell was top local in eighth with Fionnuala Ross 15th,Nikita Burke 20th and Breege Connolly 38th. North Down were third club.

Jamie Burns from Scotland won the Open 3k from Schools stars Jack O’Farrell and Conall McClean

Scotland Finland