Ireland await Cragg’s plans for European championships
Cragg was always up with the leaders and finished a comfortable third in the regional championships last week to mark his return to competitive running after surgery on a troublesome groin injury during the summer.
Next weekend he will take another step forward when he competes in the Districts and then the Arkansas College star will turn his attentions to the NCAA championships once again. Last year he was runner-up and came to Europe for the European championships where, despite feeling ill, he finished seventh.
Whether or not he competes in the Europeans this year remains to be seen but Ireland will definitely be without the services of Cathal Lombard, his younger brother, Fiachra, and their Leevale clubmate, Martin McCarthy.
Cathal Lombard, who has posted his 5,000m standard for Athens during what was a spectacular track season, should be training at altitude in Albuquerque right now but, instead, he is back home in Cork fighting a virus.
He had his sights on next month's European cross-country championships in Edinburgh but admitted yesterday that it could be after Christmas before he races again.
A shin injury flared up and no sooner had he come to terms with that than he caught a virus.
"I would be surprised if I could compete in the European championships. The virus has really knocked me for six. I am just getting back into easy training so I will gear myself up for the New Year."
He plans a trip to Albuquerque in March in advance of his bid to achieve the qualifying standard at 10,000m for Athens; he has targeted a race in Stanford where Mark Carroll set his national record on April 30.
Meanwhile, his Leevale clubmate, Martin McCarthy, missed Sunday's Cork senior cross-country championships at Inchigeela after breaking his wrist.
"I took three weeks off as planned after Berlin but then, when I resumed training, I fell and broke my wrist. It is in a cast for the past two weeks and I have not been training so I will not be racing until after Christmas," he said.
This means he too will miss the national inter-counties championships in Mullingar as well as the European championships in Edinburgh.
He has not abandoned hopes of achieving the qualifying standard for Athens. In fact, he was on schedule up to the last 5k in the Berlin Marathon. Even though he had been cramping from his drinks along the way he was heading for 2:14 until he reached the last water table with 5k to go and discovered that his drink was missing.
"The drinks I took were too heavy and I was getting stitches but, despite that, I was going well and I felt good," he said.
Fiachra Lombard is still struggling with an Achilles tendon injury and, after missing the track season, it appears as if he will now miss the cross-country season as well.
While it might be disappointing to be without Cathal Lombard, Seamus Power yesterday insisted that Ireland will still be in the hunt for medals in Edinburgh on December 14.
"Keith Kelly has already won a race and the reports would indicate that Vinny Mulvey is in pretty good form over there. Peter Matthews finished seventh in the Reebok International in Birmingham and he has come on a ton since then. I trained with him last week. And we also have Gareth Turnbull." Seamus Power said.
Power finished second in the Reebok International and was over the moon with that performance.
"That really was my comeback race," he said. "Next weekend I will compete in Margate and I will be hoping for further improvement. Then it will be the inter-counties and then the Europeans.
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