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Swift Half for McCullough in Omagh Words: Malcolm McCausland |
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Bob Mullan Motors 5K Series 2005 Bob Mullan Motors 5K Series 2004 Bob Mullan Motors 5K Series 2003 Bob Mullan Motors 5K Series 2001
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Alan McCullough (487), Paul Rowan (1) and Deane Fisher (5). Just like the daffodils along the route over 800 runners emerged from their winter slumber to set record fields at the Omagh Half Marathon. An unprecedented record 613 signed up for the full distance with another 250 involved in the four-mile Fun Run. And hope very obviously springs eternal for Allan McCullough as he finally landed the top spot in the Omagh Half Marathon. Consistently the pace-setter in the top races throughout the province including the Waterside Half Marathon only to lose out to faster finishers, the Willowfield man finally came good to end clubmate Paul Rowan’s hopes of four-in-a-row successes in the Tyrone event. “Paul started to up the pace a number of times to try to break me and he doesn’t know just how close he came to it,” said McCullough when he had regained his breath after crossing the line. “Then I picked it up at eleven and a half miles and I was able to get away.” McCullough’s time of 68 minutes 32 seconds saw him come home 29 seconds clear of Rowan with Deane Fisher making it a clean sweep of the podium places by Willowfield with a 69:55 clocking. North Belfast Harrier Dave Morwood was the leading master in fourth with a 70:28 timing while current Irish marathon champion Gary Crossan from Letterkenny was disappointed with his fifth place finish in 72:13.
Foyle Valley stalwarts Damian McGinty and Sammy McAnaney could not be accused of resting on their laurels after running their second half marathon in seven days. The previous weekend both men had been in action at the World Masters’ Championships in Linz, Austria. McGinty had run 72 minutes 57 to finish sixth place in the M45 age group and managed 74:24 to take the premier award in that category in Omagh. First City Finisher Andy Maguire in 80:05 Sammy McAnaney had been unlucky to finish just out of the medals in fourth place in Austria with a 77:17 timing. However, he had the compensation of helping Ireland to gold medals in the team competition. Remarkably, the Garden City man was only eight seconds slower on the hilly Omagh course landing top spot in M50 category. Helena Crossan was the winner of a disappointing women’s contest which saw only six of the fair sex go under 90 minutes. The Carndonagh woman, visibly short of full fitness, crossed the line in some distress to record her first victory in the event in 82:22. Monaghan Phoenix’s Donna Evans took second in 84:10 just edging North’s Breege Connolly out by four seconds. Results: Men
Ladies:
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Crossan who has
won the national title for the past four years has been sadly out of form of
late and also had a poor run in the recent NI/Ulster Senior Cross Country at
Coleraine where he barely scraped into the top twenty.