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9th
Jan 2012
Reed Retains Provincial Masters Individual Title: City of
Derry Win Masters Team Gold and Foyle Valley Junior Team Silver
An unchallanged gun to tape victory for defending
champion Declan Reed, saw the superb Spartan easily retain
his Provincial Mastersl cross country individual title at
Scotstowm in Monaghan on Saturday and lead the classy red
vests "A" squad to a comprehensive team win ahead
of Finn Valley and defending champions Annadale Striders.
Individual silver medallist Colin Roberts, Paddy Mhor Doherty
4th and Paul McCafferty 15th, completed the successful quartet
as the Spartans big guns simply blew away the opposition on
a sticky Scotstown circuit.
The Female Spartans were also on the podium,
claiming double team bronze in the Intermediate and Masters
championships, where they were fronted by Catherine Lilburn
and Jackie McGinley respectively and city rivals Foyle Valley
did really well to grab team silver in the Mens Junior championship,
with Pius McIntyre and Scott Rankin their top finishers in
a race won convincingly by North Belfast with Willowfield
in third spot The red vests challange in this one came to
naught as they failed to finish a scoring sextet.
The big win of the day undoubtdly was Declan Reeds majestic
effort in the opening Masters 8K. In the absence of the 2011
second and third placed finishers, David Morwood of Annadale
and Omagh Harrier Stephen Duncan, the Spartan strode unchallanged
to an impressive successful defence of the title, his seemingly
effortless fluency making a nonsence of the difficult sticky
underfoot conditions.
At the line he had almost a full minute to spare over the
chasers, led home impressively by Colin Roberts who had too
much gas on the final lap for Annadales Paul Carroll and took
a well merited silver medal by a five second margin.
Early on with Reed already going away, Roberts and Carroll
were tracked by the in form Paddy Mhor Doherty and Wright
of Annadale. The latter then fell back as Doherty battled
to stay in touch in the contest for the individual medals
but despite arguably his best performance over the country
he could never quite close enough to threaten the outcome.
Behind the leaders Paul McCafferty was in the mix with Eoghan
Furey for the vital fourth scoring spot on the City of Derry
team and it was clear from way out that the team title was
being ripped away from Annadale and Belfast and heading to
the North West.
Reed was in imperious isolation up front; Roberts matched
Carrolls every move and turned on the after burners late on
the last lap to clinch the runners up spot; Doherty finished
delighted for fourth and McCafferty, although under a bit
of pressure with a stitch on the penultimate lap, rallied
well for 15th to seal the final team medal with Furey impressing
in a close up 18th. The Spartans were comfortale team champions,
led by Reeds glorious golden individual successs and their
22 points total was way, way, clear of Finn Valleys 62 and
Annadale on 68.
The Womens races followed and both City of Derry and Inishowen
AC would emerge as medal contenders in the Intermediate and
Masters categories as the one 4K race acccomodated both championships.
Former Spartan Cathy McCourt was an easy individual winner
for North Belfast with Inishowen Masters duo Helena Crossan
and Evelyn McGinley nailing top ten overall finishes as the
North Donegal club missed Masters team gold by just three
points behind Lagan Valley.
The Derry Masters squad were missing a few key members but
sparked by a good run from Jackie McGinley, well supported
by Roisin Lynch who won the F60 individual title; Una Gavin
and Linda Hall the red vests did enough to claim well deserved
team bronze. Catherine Lilburn in 11th overall led the Spartans
Intermediate squad to a welcome team bronze behind Lagan Valley
and Omagh Harriers in a hard fought contest with only eight
points separating the top three teams.
Catherine found the underfoot conditions difficult but as
ever she battled hard for her 11th place overall finish and
fifth Intermediate; Sarah Mahon was next home, followed by
Ciara Fraser and Hannah McGowan and the tired and muddy Spartans
were delighted to find they were third team after a tough
and demanding trek in soft conditions. Lagan Valley got gold
by three points from Omagh who were a further five clear of
the local red vests.It possibly could have been better but
Provincial medals are fiercely contested and the delighted
Spartans were happy to bring some medals home,irrespective
of colour.
Junior Silver Lining For Foyle Valley
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Pre race favourite Jarlath Falls of Ballymena/Antrim finished
second in last years Junior in Stormont but made no mistake
this time with as covincing a margin as Declan Reed in the
earlier Masters race. He was always in front and eventually
finished well ahead of runner up Alan O Hara of North Belfast
and Liam Venney of East Down. North Belfast packed well to
comfortably claim the iconic War Memorial Trophy easily ahead
of a battling Foyle Valley squad and Willowfield Harriers.
The muted Spartans challange ended early on with Noel Logan
limping out of the race with a recurance of a calf problem
and the red vests were out of the six to score team battle.
Valleys leading pair Pius McIntyre and Scott Rankin both had
impressive runs a week earlier at the Lough 5mile road race
in Tyrone but found the cloying Monaghan terrain not so acccomodating
on Saturday but they plugged away doggedly just off the leading
group and hung on strongly to finish ninth and tenth as Chris
McGuinness came through for 12th to lay the base for a Valley
team medal charge. North Belfast however were packing better
with their top two in second and fifrth and behind McGuinness
the yellow and black vests were gathering.
Declan Doherty had started strongly but like many in the field
found the conditions and the over distance very demanding....post
race opinion had it that the race was actually seven miles
rather than 10K and indeed the finish times would suggest
that. Declan , Ciaran Graham and Teague Whoriskey dug in for
the long haul and hung on magnificently for the team. Ciaran
finished 31st, Declan 34th and a shattered Teague 49th and
this was enough to clinch the team silver medals for the delighted
purple vests. North Belfast had their sixth scorer home in
23rd place and with a total of 85 points were comprehensive
winners ahead of Valleys 145 and Willowfield on 185.
Like their city rivals Valley were missing some key men but
on the day North would have taken some beating and the Foyle
boys on duty did really well to add Junior team silver to
their Novice team gold of a few months ago. James Brown led
the Spartans home in 18th, a good effort in his first competitive
outing after a lengthy injury absence; teenager Connor Doherty
was drafted in late to compensate for those missing in action
and stuck to his task for 37th; Mark Mullan 39th, Scott Galbraith
44th and Dara Furey 45th were the other Spartans to finish.
Back to the Male Masters and the Spartans also had a "B"
squad in action. Dermot Connolly and Sammy McAnaney showed
well for 29th and 37th in the big field; Oran McBride and
Philip Donaghy ran most of the distance in tandem to finish
46th and 47th anf Peter Lilburn was not far behind in 52nd.
Good to see Sammy back racing after an injury enforced absence.
Christy McMonagle of course won his M65 age group championship
with yet another strong run and will now target overall honours
in the NI Masters Winter League and the National M65 championships
in Roscommon in early February.
Gerry Lynch
Full results here
Photos from Dara and Eoghan
here
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