Focused Murray digs deep to seal title

LAST summer Gary Murray was told by the renowned Munich sports injury specialist, Dr Hans Mueller, that his back was in such bad shape that he should not be running at all.

When he awoke with a back spasm on Saturday morning, his hopes of reclaiming the national inter-counties cross country title seemed remote.

Yesterday Murray turned in the performance of his life to beat last year’s silver medallist, Gareth Turnbull (Antrim), and defending champion, Mark Christie (Westmeath), in a thrilling race fought out in spectacular fashion over the plains of The Curragh.

Murray, who has won the inter-club title for the past two years, was reversing last year’s placings in Dungarvan (when Christie won and Turnbull was second) when he crossed the line in 31 mins 46 secs 11 seconds ahead of Turnbull. Christie was another six seconds further back but took the under-23 title once again from another former champion Vinny Mulvey (Dublin), fourth.

Murray’s reaction was more of relief than elation.

“After the week I have had I was just happy to get across that line in the first place,” he said. “First I had a tummy bug and then I spent all day yesterday with the osteopath working on my back after a spasm.”

His back has been troublesome in recent years, and when he was referred to Dr Mueller last summer, it appeared as if his running career might be nearing an end.

“After looking at the X-rays he said he could not believe the state of my back and that I should not be running at all,” he said.

“But he treated me and then, with the help of Gerard Hartmann in Limerick, I got back running again.”

And he was stretched to the limit yesterday when Christie, his flatmate Joe Sweeney and Vinny Mulvey set a devastating pace that eventually took 10 athletes clear of the field.

This leading group was reduced to five when Murray chased Christie going out on the penultimate lap, with Mulvey, Joe Sweeney and Turnbull, who lost contact briefly, bunched behind as the race developed into a head to head between Murray and Christie.

Murray made several surges before he eventually got clear of the Mullingar Harrier to win on his own and Turnbull came through to snatch second with the finish line in sight.

“I think I wanted it more than anyone else today. I was prepared to do whatever it took to win,” Murray said.

“I don’t I am ever going to win this race,” said Turnbull who has been second three times and third four times. “But then it is always my first and sometimes my only cross-country race of the year. Maybe if I worked on it from September I would be more competitive but there are more important things.

“At the moment I am thinking about Olympic qualification and I cannot allow anything to interfere with that.”

Last season was all but wiped out after he was accused of testing positive a banned substance. While he was later cleared and had the ban lifted, he said it was almost as if he was serving a ban: the season was wasted.

“Now my aim is to qualify for the Olympics but because I did not run fast times last season, I need to run a fast time early next year to get into the races I need,” he said.

That means he won’t be available when the selectors name the team for the European Cross-country Championships later today and the fact that Mark Christie will be leading the under-23 team means that two of the top three will be missing from the senior squad.

Fionnuala Britton (Wicklow) can put the finishing touches to another memorable year when she leads the senior women’s team in Spain on Sunday week.

Last year she won the silver medal in the under-23 race at the European Championships and yesterday she retained her inter-counties title in a thrilling race with her teammate Deirdre Byrne — breaking clear in the closing stages to reverse the placings in last month’s Gerry Farnan race in the Phoenix Park.

John Coghlan (Dublin) claimed his biggest victory to date when he won the junior men’s title. He ran a clever race as his flatmate at DCU, Brendan O’Neill, set the pace. When it came down to a head to head between the pair, the race was in the balance until O’Neill, who went into the race with an ankle injury, limped off the course with the finish line in sight and left Coghlan on his own.

“I was surprised when I looked around and did not see him,” said Coghlan, who had just taken the lead.

“It was a tough race but I felt very strong today.”

The Ffrench-O’Carroll twins are lucky to have each other to train with after school and, frequently, they battle it out in races.

Yesterday they were clear on their own all the way before Charlotte, who broke one of Sonia O’Sullivan’s records this year when finishing second in the 3,000m at the European Youth Olympics, edged clear to take the junior women’s title.