10th
July 08RECORD FOR DUNCAN WHILE
JENNINGS ROWS HOME AHEAD OF THE WOMEN
Omagh Harrier Stephen Duncan
put all the hours of training in Gortin Glen to best use in
winning the Strabane 10K Road Race in record time.
The race also attracted the
best women’s field seen in the Northwest with World Championship
rower Catriona Jennings successfully defending her title.
Yet again the event proved a resounding success for the sponsors
Strabane District Council to such an extent that Race Director
Aiden Lynch intends to apply for NI Championship status for
the race in 2009.
Apart from setting a new course record, Duncan overcame what
many considered a superior opponent in the person of Diarmuid
Grant who earlier this year was third in the NI/Ulster Senior
Cross-Country and represented Ireland at the discipline at the
World University Games in France.
The contest was a two-horse almost from the gun with Duncan
struggling to cope with the speed of the his young adversary
as the pair sped through the opening four kilometres in under
12 minutes.
The pair were still neck and neck at the halfway point when
the first hill loomed on the horizon. At that point the Irish
Mountain-Running champion dug deep used his climbing skills
honed during hours of tortuous training in Gortin Glen.
And by the time the City of Derry athlete got back on the level
ground, Duncan had forged into a decisive lead which increased
to a gap of 25 seconds at the finish line.
His time of 31 minutes 22 seconds delivered Grant a second blow
with the mark lopping a massive 55 seconds off his 2006 course
record.
Meanwhile another City of Derry athlete, Declan Reed, ran a
canny race to seal third over two minutes back in 33:48 and
at the same time edging off the podium 2007 winner Delfim Pimentel,
the first M40, by a scant five seconds.
Other category prizes went to Peter Smith (M45/35:30), Matt
Shields (M50/35:35) and Tom Cullen (M60/46:00).
The women’s race attracted the best quality field ever seen
in a race with World Championship rower Catriona Jennings successfully
defending her title. The Letterkenny woman who has been based
in Dublin for some years was just ten seconds outside Liz McColgan’s
course record with a time of 37:20.
That was also the margin back to North Belfast’s Sharon Trimble
in second place with Helena Crossan from the Inishowen club
still having enough speed in her legs to outpace younger rivals
for third spot in 38:31 despite winning a 100K race recently.
Gillian Burns (F35/39:22), Donna Evans (F40/40:04), Kay Byrne
(F45/39:52) and Marie-Terese Speight (F50/46:00) headed their
respective age group listings.
Malcolm
