Power hopes to repeat race

SEAMUS POWER is hoping to at least repeat his last performance at Margate when he lines up for the Grand Prix race there tomorrow.

It is four years since he last ran in the event and that time he finished third in a star-studded field.

“I would like to repeat that again but it is a very difficult race,” he said. “There will be a lot of Kenyans there.”

Two weeks ago he finished second in the Reebok International in Birmingham and while there were a number of foreign athletes in the field that day, the action involved a lot of the home-based runners.

“It will be the other way around this time. With the UK trials just a week away I would expect that some of the home runners will not be competing but there will be more foreign runners involved,” he said.

“We have a strong team. Robert Connolly and Tom Carey are both running well but, of course, the spotlight will be on Catherina (McKiernan). It is great to see her back.”

Top opposition to the four-time World Cross Country silver-medallist over the 5.5km course is likely to come from France’s Laurence Duquenoy, Marina Hosselet, Fanny Pruvost and Marie-Astrid Tournon.

The race will also herald the return of former national champion Rosemary Ryan to cross-country running.

Since winning the national half marathon, she won the Women’s Mini Marathon in Cork and competed in the world half marathon championships in Lisbon.