Murray gets the tactics right

GARY MURRAY (St. Malachy’s) claimed the national inter-clubs cross-country title at Santry on Saturday after an exciting duel with Mark Kenneally (Clonliffe Harriers) as the young guns finally wrestled control of the championship from the old guard.

Paul McNamara (Athenry AC) took the bronze medal and another young St. Malachy’s athlete, Joe McAllister, who starred as a junior, finished fourth. Further back Mark Christie from Mullingar, three time junior champion, came through the field to finish sixth, overtaking his clubmate, Martin Fagan.

Sandwiched between them in fifth position, however, was Seamus Power (Kilmurry/Ibrickane), the man who has dominated cross-country running for more than 10 years now. He was the defending champion, a four times winner and also has a record nine successive inter-counties titles.

For much of this race it looked like he was set to make a sensational return from injury after just six weeks of training. He tracked the leaders, took the lead and forced much of the pace before finally succumbing to a stitch when McNamara and McAllister overtook him on the last lap.

Martin Fagan, back from Providence, set a ferocious early pace that swept six runners clear of the field - Power, Kenneally, McAllister, McNamara and Murray joining him. The group was reduced to four as McNamara and McAllister lost contact and then he paid the price for his extravagance under pressure from Power who led briefly from Kenneally and Murray.

Just before half way Power got the stitch that would virtually end his challenge and leave Murray and Kenneally to fight it out. It was Murray who launched the crucial attack in the dip at the back of the course that decided the race.

“I promised myself I wouldn’t let it develop into a sprint finish,” he said. “I took my chance and hoped I could hold on. For a time I thought I would keel over but it worked out in the end.” Power said:

“I knew all week that they were the ones to beat,” he said. “I knew it was going to be difficult for me after the injury. I had only been training since January 6 and I knew the race was coming just that bit too soon for me.

The team contest was equally exciting with just seven points separating the top four clubs, victory going to Clonliffe Harriers with 65 pts, followed by St. Malachy’s on 70, DSD on 71 and Mullingar Harriers on 72.

Jolene Byrne made history when she became the first Donore Harrier to take the women’s title after sprinting clear of Maria McCambridge (Dundrum South Dublin).

From Middlebury, a small town in Northern Indiana, she married Karl Byrne and came to live in Dublin where she works as an accountant. Now she will lead Ireland’s challenge at next month’s world cross-country championships.

The bronze medal went to the three times national junior champion, Fionnuala Britton (Sli Cualann) who made a welcome return to her best form.

And two rising stars dominated the two junior races. Danny Darcy (St. Lawrence O’Toole’s, Carlow) won the junior men’s race by almost a minute from Paul Pollock (Abbey AC) while Rose-Ann Galligan (Newbridge AC), who set a new Irish junior indoor 3,000m record at the AAA Championships in Birmingham a week earlier, came from a long way back to outsprint Linda Byrne (DSD) in a repeat of the finish to the inter-counties championship in Dungarvan in December.