Cullen takes senior women’s race

Mary Cullen has finished first in the senior women’s race at the Woodie’s DIY Inter County Cross Country Championships at Kilbeggan this afternoon.

The North Sligo AC athlete capped a wonderful performance in testing weather coming home well ahead of Deirdre Byrne (Sli Chualann), Linda Byrne (Dundrum South Dublin) and Fionnuala Britton (Slí Chualann) in a time of 26.43 minutes.

With the top three in the race being guaranteed a place on the Irish team for the European Cross Country Championships, Ireland are assured of having a strong team to call on in Santry on December 13.

Cullen was delighted with her performance, saying: “The conditions out here today were very difficult. My coach, Ray Treacy, just told me to go as hard as possible early on the race and that would be enough to see me through.

"There was a very strong headwind that we were running into but I felt comfortable throughout and am delighted to take the gold in what was a strong field. It’s all go now for the Euros in Dublin next month. This will be my last race before then so, on a personal note, it was important to get the win."