Talented Murphy more than making up for lost time

CRAIG MURPHY might have followed in the footsteps of his grandfather, legendary Kerry All-Ireland football star Jas Murphy, were it not for the fact that one day he went for a training run with a group of athletes from Douglas Community School.

“He was playing football with Douglas at the time but he went for a run with a group of lads, he enjoyed it and he has gone from strength to strength since then,” his coach, Stephen Macklin, said. “He was already a second year student at the time so he was a late entry into the sport.”

On Saturday he will line up for the senior race at the KitKat Munster Schools Cross-Country championships at St. Augustine’s College, Dungarvan and while he will face the might of the older and more experienced pair, David McCarthy and Diarmuid Ó Foghlú, he will give a good account of himself.

On his last visit to St. Augustine’s he came away with the national U-18 cross-country title. That was in December and, that evening, he went down with ‘flu and spent the following week in bed.

The same month he made a foray to Great Britain and won the UK Cross-Challenge in Birmingham. Two weeks ago he returned to win the corresponding race in Cardiff.

Last summer he won the Irish schools intermediate 3,000m title, followed up by winning the KitKat schools interprovincial and was only outfoxed by the English pair in a desperately slow race that wound up in the final kilometre at the schools international in Grangemouth.

As a first year senior he will need time to develop against the likes of David McCarthy, who will be hot favourite to retain his title in Dungarvan and Diarmuid Ó Foghlú who was a surprise winner of this season’s Munster U-19 title.

Douglas Community School, after winning three team titles at last week’s South Munster Schools Championships hosted by Midleton CBS, will challenging for the overall cup.

Shane Quinn (De La Salle, Waterford), son of Olympian Brendan Quinn who still holds the national steeplechase record, will be expected to romp home in the junior boys’ race.

There will be an interesting newcomer in the senior girls’ race in Sylwia Bien, a former champion in her native Poland, who makes her debut with Scoil Mhuire, Carrick-on-Suir.

The programme starts at 12.30pm.