Euro Reale-ity check for Cragg
Victory went to the 23 year-old Limerick man in 3:43.26 with Cragg second in 3:44.98 and European junior champion Colin Costello third in 3:46.53.
Reale went into the race with the fastest time, 3:38.65, but Cragg set about burning him off with a 58.66 opening lap with Costello close up and the trio well clear of the field. They hit the 800m mark in 2:00.50 but the pace was slowing.
“That was probably where I lost the race,” admitted Cragg. “I should have kept the pressure up.”
Reale used the opportunity to ease to the front and he had control of the race going out on the final lap. Costello, Cragg’s colleague at Arkansas, went second on the back straight but Cragg fought back on the final bend, although he never looked like catching the leader.
“I decided to lead but it might have been a mistake because the wind was quite strong out there,” said Cragg. “I had no option because I felt if I was to beat Liam it was not going to be in the finishing straight. I could have sat back and waited for a sprint finish and that would have been exciting but I wanted to win the race.”
He did not regard the defeat as a blow to his European championship hopes, pointing out that his training has been going well.
“I will be ready for Gothenburg,” he said. “I will have another 1,500m race in London at the weekend and that should leave me pretty right. After running 13:08 in New York I had a full month of training and came to Cork on the back of that. Today was not good for confidence but I just need race fitness right now.”
It was a big scalp for Reale and he enjoyed the performance. “I am thrilled,” he said. “I knew he would take it out and felt that if I was still in contention with 400m to go I could take it. I always wanted to win an Irish title but to win it from such a good field made it special.”
James Nolan, former title holder at both 800m and 1,500m, arrived at Santry after running his best 1,500m of the season in Heusden on Saturday night, when he finished 10th in a world-class field in 3:37.89. However, he had to compete in the 5,000m after missing the heats of the 1,500 on Saturday. In first ever run over 5,000m on the track, he got involved in the action right from the start with Martin Fagan from Mullingar, hammering out a solid early pace, tracked by the former national cross-country champion, Gary Murray, and Nolan a close third. Fagan, who has qualified at both 5,000m and 10,000m for the European championships, tried to lead all the way and even when Murray went to the front he still looked strong. But when it came to the sprint Fagan lost out by nine hundredths of a seconds to Murray with Nolan, in third, succumbing to the pressure.
“I feel I can run faster than in Heusden 3:35 or maybe 3:34,” said Nolan.
Martin Fagan, too, will be heading for Gothenburg but will not be doubling up and will contest only the 10,000m.
“I have been feeling tired since I came back to Ireland after a pretty heavy collegiate circuit,” he said. “I just need to get that fresh feeling back. I decided to lead the race today and the wind was pretty strong in the home straight each time. But I will just take it easy between now and the Europeans and that should do the trick.”
Jamie Costin (West Waterford) took another major step forward in his rehabilitation when he dropped way down in distance for an impressive win in the men’s 10,000m walk. He has been making steady progress all season after coming back from an horrific traffic accident in Athens on the eve of the 2004 Olympics. That year he walked an impressive 39:09 for second place behind Robert Heffernan in the nationals. Yesterday, in the absence of Heffernan and Colin Griffin, he walked a solo 41:23.17 to claim the title and he was understandably thrilled.
“It’s just great to be back,” he beamed. “It has been a long, hard road. I have had to start from scratch first I was in a body cast for three and a half months and then on crutches and now here I am competing again.”
Griffin has done the B standard for the world championships but he failed by a frustrating 15 seconds to achieve the standard for the Europeans in Poland at the weekend when he was second in his race in 1:14:15. “It was like competing in sauna,” he said. “There was a thunder storm before the race and the course was through a forest so the humidity was something ferocious. All those around me were down in their times but I was up so I was happy with that. Unfortunately I don’t have another chance at the standard.”
Ann Loughnane (Craughwell) has beaten the B standard for the world championships three times and, on Saturday she added completed a nice double when she added the 5,000m title, held previously by her sister Olive, to the AAA title she won in Manchester a week earlier. Unfortunately the former world youths silver medallist has also missed out on the European standard.
CONNECT WITH US TODAY
Be the first to know the latest news and updates
