Cullen sends out Euro warning
Conditions were little short of atrocious for the mammoth programme which included the first session of the juvenile championships. But, full credit to Paddy Dunican and his Kilbeggan race committee and Mullingar Harriers for providing excellent facilities for an attendance of over 8,000.
And Mary Cullen warmed the hearts of all with a performance hallmarked in courage. She took the field apart on the first lap and her margin of victory over athletes of the calibre of Deirdre Byrne (Wicklow), Linda Byrne (Dublin) and Fionnuala Britton (Wicklow), former European U-23 silver medallist, would indicate it’s going to take a really big performance to beat her in Santry on December 13.
She had almost a minute to spare over Deirdre Byrne, who reversed last year’s placing with defending champion Linda Byrne in a ferocious contest up the finishing straight.
Young Sara Treacy (Meath) was the leading U23 runner in fifth, finishing ahead of Ava Hutchinson (Dublin), Orla O’Mahony (Raheny Shamrock) and Rosemary Ryan (Limerick). The first three in each category gain automatic selection for the Europeans. The teams are to be finalised tomorrow.
Mary Cullen, who won her first national senior cross-country title yesterday, finished fourth in the European championships last year and will lead out the Irish senior women.
“I decided to come home to prepare for the European championships and, so far, it has worked for me,” she said.
She admitted the wind was a problem. “When the wind blows like that it does knock you about a bit,” she said. She said it won’t easy in Dublin next month and is hoping the weather will take a turn for the better. “It’s Europe so it’s not going to be easy, but I would like to think I have a chance of a medal,” she said.
Andrew Ledwith took a gamble when leaving his altitude training camp at Flagstaff in Arizona just over 24 hours earlier, but on the penultimate of five laps all the odds were stacked in his favour. Up to that point he hung in cautiously behind pre-race favourite Mark Kenneally and his fellow Dubliner Sean Connolly, but when the 24-year-old Meath man made his move he was awesome and opened up a gap of 100m in lest than a minute despite Kenneally’s response. Connolly would pip Kenneally for silver.
“You had to be very careful about where you led today,” he said. “If you took the lead going into the wind lads could sit on your back. But just as you had a strong wind in your face, you had it on your back as well and that pushed you around half the course.”
He admitted his late arrival was seriously thought out. “I talked to a few people and each one mentioned Robert Denmead so I decided to go to the source and he was great to me.”
Michael Clohisey (Dublin) finished fourth, ahead of David Kelly (Sligo) with Michael Mulhare (Laois), who chased Craig Murphy home in the junior race last year, finishing top U23 in sixth place.
Michael McKillop (Antrim), who won a gold medal in the 800m at last year’s Paralympic Games in Beijing, was a surprise winner of the junior men’s title. Jason Smyth became the first physically impaired athlete to represent Ireland in track and field and now he makes history by leading Ireland’s junior team into a major cross-country championship.
“I knew I was good enough to make the team, but, to be honest, I did not think I would win,” he said. “The last lap was just pure guts – just like Beijing. A lot of hard work has paid off.”
Ciara Mageean (Antrim) was an impressive winner of the junior women’s title finishing 20 seconds clear of Laura Shaughnessy (Loughrea) and Emma Mitchell (Banbridge) for her first national junior cross-country title.
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