Irish turn in strong showing at World Cross Country in Florida

Ireland’s Brian Fay. Pic: ©INPHO/Morgan Treacy

It was a team that was low on quantity, but high on quality, and the Irish proved their calibre with a strong showing at the World Cross Country Championships in Tallahassee, Florida on Saturday. Brian Fay finished a superb 16th in the senior men’s race, with Niamh Allen 21st in the women’s race and her fellow Cork woman Fiona Everard just behind in 23rd.

“I’m buzzing,” said Fay. “After a poor World Outdoor Champs, I wanted to come here and make a statement. I wanted to put it up to those guys and put them under the cosh. I’m happy I represented, and that I ran well.” 

The individual events were again dominated by East Africa, with Kenya’s Agnes Ngetich blazing around the 10km course in 31:28 to win the senior women’s title – 42 seconds quicker than runner-up Joy Cheptoyek of Uganda. The senior men’s race saw Uganda’s Jacob Kiplimo once again prove a class apart, powering clear on the penultimate lap and taking his third straight title in 28:18, with Ethiopia’s Berihu Aregawi taking silver in 28:36.

Fay was the sole member of the Irish men’s team that won silver at last month’s Europeans to take up selection for this event and it proved a worthwhile journey as the Dubliner turned in his best ever championship performance.

The 27-year-old Raheny athlete started in controlled fashion, passing 3km in 39th and 5km in 31st. “I said I needed to race a little conservative for the first 2K and hopefully come through the field,” he said.

Fay moved up to 20th with a lap to run and was outkicked for 15th by world 10,000m champion Jimmy Gressier of France, with Fay clocking 29:37 and finishing as the fourth European.

“This I where I did my first NCAA cross and I ran well,” said Fay, who, after his undergraduate degree at DCU, spent two years studying at the University of Washington. “Coming back here, I felt I had a bit of redemption. I was wearing the vest for Ireland and it is a really good cross country course – you live for it.

“I was feeling good pretty much the whole way. It was tough, but I’m rubbing shoulders with some very good guys – fourth European and they’re all sub-27-minute [10,000m] guys. So it bodes well for the future.” 

It was the best Irish performance at the event since Fionnuala McCormack’s 14th-place finish in 2013, and the best by an Irish man since Alistair Cragg’s 16th-place finish in the short-course race at the 2005 edition. It marks a major step forward for Fay, the Irish 5000m record holder who finished 10th at the European Cross Country last month.

In the women’s race, Allen and Everard adopted similar tactics, with both running in the 30s through the opening half before picking off several places in the closing kilometres.

The course at the Apalachee Regional Park underwent several modifications for the event, with a water pit, sand section, mud pit, a manmade hill and a section of logs to jump that were topped with ornamental alligators. For Allen and Everard, being the hunter and not the hunted proved a fruitful strategy in the latter half.

In what was her debut at global level, Allen hit the line 21st in 34:19 with Everard three seconds behind in 23rd – the best performances in both of their careers. They finished as the third and fourth Europeans, having both finished 10th at the European Cross Country in recent years.

Noah Harris was the sole Irish athlete in the U-20 category, the Parnell AC athlete – who studies at the University of Tennessee – coming home 38th in the 8km event, clocking 26:03, with gold going to Kenya’s Frankline Kibet in 23:18. Harris threw himself into contention in the opening half and was still 17th with one lap to run, but the wheels fell off soon after and he looked in considerable distress as he reached the finish.

Australia turned in a dominant performance to win the mixed relay, Jess Hull anchoring them to gold in 22:23 with France second in 22:26 and Ethiopia third in 22:34. Given the current depth in Irish 1500m running, it was the kind of race where a full-strength quartet could well have won a global medal – one that should likely be targeted in the future.