Northwest Athletes Find Going Tough at Stormont

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Northwest athletes found the going tough at the Belfast International Cross Country on the Stormont Estate.

For years local athletes have been prominent at the showpiece meeting but this year’s crop struggled in the star-studded fields.

City of Derry’s senior men did, however, take silver team medals after a close fought battle with reigning Northern Ireland champions Willowfield.

Diarmuid Grant - Top City Athlete

Diarmuid Grant regained his standing as top Spartan leading the red vests home in 37^th spot, four ahead of Allan Bogle.

Ciaran Hurley continued a consistent vein of form with his best run of the season to date taking 48^th while Eoghan Furey completed the scoring quartet in 58^th.

Upfront Kenya's Barnabas Kosgei won the men's race ahead of Uganda's Moses Kipsiro and Dathan Ritzenheim with Irish hope Alistair Cragg a distant sixth.

A "shell-shocked" Cragg who pulled out of last month’s European Cross Country Championships with a leg injury was at a loss to explain his disappointing performance.

"I'm pretty embarrassed with that, a good crowd had turned up and I was the home hope but my legs just felt heavy today. There was nothing there," said the European Indoor 3000 metres champion.

In the women’s race Etalemahu Kidane sprinted to her second successive victory with her compatriots Derebe Alemu and Ashu Kasim completing an Ethiopian 1-2-3.

Sligo athlete Mary Cullen was a fine fourth while Finn Valley’s Clodagh McCool was the leading local finisher in 20^th.  Cranford female master Bridie Trearty was another three places back with City’s Shelagh Bodkin taking 31^st.

Northwest veterans were out in force in the masters’ race with Finn Valley’s Kieran Carlin taking fourth overall and first in the M35 category.

Carlin’s clubmates Dominic Bonner and Mark Connolly were 11^th and 20^th overall to take second and third in the M45 category. Declan McCarthy was 22^nd overall and 8^th in the M40 age group with City colleague Dermot Connolly one place further back in the M45s.

There were three County Derry entrants in the junior men’s (U20) NI Championship.  Matthew Livingstone, a pupil at Coleraine Academical Institute, led the trio home in 18^th with Mid-Ulster clubmates Steven Steele and Anthony Mooney holding down 21^st and 23^rd respectively at the line.

Letterkenny sisters Joanne English (13^th) and Michelle English (24^th) together with City’s Suzanne McGilloway (25^th) were the leading local runners in the joint U17/U20 race.

Pick of the rest were Adam Friel from Milford 2^nd in the U13s, Omagh Harrier Noel Collins 3rd in the U15s and Finn Valley’s Ian Ward taking 4^th in the U17 boys’ contest.