Murray 12th in Europe

St. Joseph’s High School teacher Gary Murray ran the race of his life to finish twelfth in yesterday’s European Cross-Country Championships in Tilburg, Holland.

It was a brilliant performance against the continent’s top professionals from a man who has to fit in his training around the demands of a full time teaching job at the Creggan school.

Twelve months ago, Murray had a poor run in the same event when he started too fast and ran out of gas to finish a lowly 64^th.

Yesterday, Murray followed his pre-race plan to perfection on the flat but muddy course to finish as leading Irish man and eight places ahead of Britain’s first runner, Mo Farah in twentieth.

Although back in 29^th after 1500 metres and only climbing two places by the 3.2 kilometre mark of the 9840 metres course, the former Finn Valley athlete did panic.

With five kilometres gone he was still languishing in back in 24^th but started to make inroads when he moved up to nineteenth as the field went through 6.5 kilometres. The leading Irish runner, Martin Fagan, was now just two places ahead.

The progress of the Stranorlar man, who recently moved to Newtowncunningham to be closer to his work, continued as he went through the bell in fifteenth with Fagan three seconds back.

As Ukraine’s Sergey Lebid turned in a masterclass in cross-country running upfront to land his sixth title in the event, Murray battled on to cross the line in the top dozen of Europe’s specialist distance runners.

It capped an incredible year for the St. Malachy’s athlete who has won three national titles in 2005 as well as breaking four minutes for the mile for the first time.

Murray should also provide inspiration to all up and coming local runners because he has reached the pinnacle of Irish distance running without American scholarships or any outside influence.

He cut his teeth as a juvenile in the Finn Valley club but switched allegiance to St. Malachy’s when he moved to Belfast to attend the University of Ulster at Jordanstown.

He finished eighth in the junior race at the European Championships in 1999 before experiencing several lean years due to persistent injuries.

It is only really in the past two years that he has started to fulfil the potential shown as a junior. Now coached by Mullingar man, David Burke, Murray has his sights set on qualifying for next year’s European Athletics Championships in Copenhagen.

Eighth place in the team listing was as good as could be expected from the Irish squad following the loss of Alistair Cragg through illness. Had the Clonliffe Harrier been present Ireland would have been undoubtedly disputing the bronze medals with Ukraine.

Meanwhile Stephen Scullion was a runaway winner of the feature race at the Dromore Cross-Country Meeting as the topsy-turvy local season continued.

With a new winner practically every week, the Ulster under 19 took the opportunity to join the growing list of Saturday heroes.

On Saturday Scullion had over a minute to spare at the end of the five miles with a time of 27 minutes five seconds. Second place went to Paul Blaney in 28:26 with veteran Peter Smith in third completing a North Belfast cleansweep of the top prizes in 29:05.

Beechmount’s Louise McClean took the women’s race in 19:32 after overhauling early leader Martina Hawkins from Newcastle on the final lap. North Belfast’s Angela Burns took third 56 seconds behind Hawkins in 20:43.

Richard Rodgers was a class apart in the masters’ race winning by 43 seconds from 56-year-old Willowfield Harrier Dessie McHenry. Rodger’s Newcastle clubmate Eddie McCrickard took third a mere three seconds back.

11 December 2005 - European Cross Country Championships, Tilburg, Holland.

Junior Women:- 1 A Bobocel (ROM) 15:23, 2 E Pidgeon (GBR) 15:25, 3 S Kuijken (NED) 15:33; Teams: - 1 Great Britain 30, 2 Romania 49, 3 Russia 60, 4 Ireland 98 (4 L Byrne, 23 R Galligan, 34 A Gebrezgi, 37 A Baker, (63) A Cooke, (69) B Twohig).

Junior men:- 1 B Barnabas (HUN) 18:41, 2 A Vernon (GBR) 18:42, 3 D Markesevic (SCG) 18:42; Teams: 1 Poland 60, 2 Great Britain 68, 3 Romania 71, 13 Ireland 204 (20 D Darcy, 46 P Pollock, 68 M Clohissey, 70 B O’Neill, (72) D Birmingham, (84) K Lawlor).

Senior Women:- 1 L Kiplagat (NED) 19:55, 2 S Mockenhaupt (GER) 20:00, 3 J Nilsson (SWE) 20:01; Teams: 1 Russia 52, Great Britain 54, 3 France 73, 5 Ireland 106 (11 M Cullen, 29 R Ryan, 31 J Byrne, 35 O O’Mahoney, (38) A Byrne, (39) F Britton).

Senior Men: - 1 Sergiy Lebed (UKR) 27:09, 2 A Garcia (ESP) 27:21, 3 D Maazouzi (FRA) 27:26; Teams: 1 France 21, 2 Spain 64, 3 Ukraine 71, 8 Ireland 139 (12 G Murray, 16 M Fagan, 51 M Kenneally, 60 G Turnbull, (72) P McNamara, (77) D Kelly).