McCARTHY
REPEATS CULDAFF VICTORY
The old adage of Horses for Courses was proven
right again when Declan McCarthy repeated his victory in the
Culdaff 5K. Last year the Kilfennan-based accountant scored
his first ever open road race victory when he romped home ahead
of the opposition in the Donegal seaside resort.
Twelve months later the 45-year-old City of Derry
Spartan used exactly the same tactics to beat off the younger
opposition in emphatic style.
Declan on his was
to victory number 2(Photo Eoghan)
McCarthy was the first to show after the retort
of the starter’s gun and was already five metres clear after the
first half mile. However, shortly afterwards he throttled back
to allow the chasing group to catch him.
At the halfway point Ciarán Sullivan of
Letterkenny made a bid to breakaway on the uphill section of the
course but was soon roped in by both his clubmate Eddie Sweeney
and McCarthy.
With just over mile as the leaders approached
a steep downhill section the Waterford native turned on the afterburners
as he had done in 2007 to power away from the opposition for a
comfortable 14 seconds victory in 16 minutes 58 seconds.
Sweeney held on for second with City of Derry’s
Paddy Moore moving through for third another two seconds back
in 17:14.
Paddy (Doherty)
Moore just loses out on the battle for the runner up spot with
Letterkenny's Eddie Sweeney.(Photo Eoghan)
Pauric O’Donnell (17:15), Frank Chaney (17:15)
and Gerard Bogle (17:24) made up the top half dozen.
Peter Lilburn (19:23) was the first M50 with
Christy McMonagle a classy victor in the M60 age group with a
20:14 clocking.
Letterkenny’s Margaret Kelly was a class apart
in the women’s race winning in 19:30 while David Lynch beat off
older opposition to take the Juvenile Mile in 5:31.
David on his way
to victory in the Junior Mile Race(Photo Eoghan)
The senior race attracted 63 entrants and was
held in cool pleasant running conditions.
Malcolm McCausland
Race photos from Eoghan Furey here
