Barrie grabs gold medal on greatest stage of all

8 January 2014

THE best quality field ever assembled for the International Cross Country at Greenmount on Saturday afternoon in both men and women’s races did not disappoint the record crowd which turned to watch out in near perfect conditions.

Apparently oblivious to the soft underfoot conditions, the Africans served up a fascinating battle between reigning World Cross Country champion Japhet Korir of Kenya, team-mate Emmanuel Bett and last year’s winner, Thomas Akeyo of Uganda.

In a frantic dash for the line, Korir’s front running was rewarded with a two second victory margin over Akeyo with Bett in third.

It occurs to me that the reason they cope so well with soft underfoot conditions is that they don’t leave either foot long enough in one place to sink into, seemingly gliding over whatever terrain they encounter. Ninth place finisher Paul Pollock took the NI & Ulster title ahead of Stephen Scullion with Gary Murray in third.

The women’s race was also dominated by African athletes with the Bahrain couple Mimi Belete and Maryam Jamal taking first and second places ahead of Belgium’s Almensh Belete, though last year’s winner Fionnuala Britton was not disgraced in 4th place ahead of her European conqueror Gemma Steel and England’s Charlotte Purdue.

East Down’s Megan Wilson ran a superb race to take 38th place overall which, discounting the internationals and overseas visitors, equates to 10th place, a remarkable feat.

Clubmate Catherine O’Connor also ran very well and with a few more races under her belt and an organised training programme she will be a force to be reckoned with.

Not many clubs can come away from the IAAF meeting claiming a win, but Barrie Atkinson did just that in fine style for East Down when he led the Masters race from start to finish to cross the line well clear of the fast finishing Peter Neill from Omagh with Larne’s Craig Hutchinson in 3rd.

Not far behind Liam Keenan battled it out with old adversary Ray Curran from Ballymena while Phillip Vint and Francis Tumelty enjoyed each others company in a trial run for more competitive activity in the final rounds of the Cross Country League.

It was encouraging to see a strong East Down squad take part in the senior race which incorporates the NI and Ulster Championships.

Given the presence of so many international and world class runners in the field, the pressure was off the club runners to some extent, which paradoxically, led to some very good performances.

Brendan Teer was able to abandon his usual front running tactics and looked strong and relaxed throughout, leading the sextet home in 41st place with Martin Willcox and Michael Cultra battling it out for 2nd and 3rd East Down places respectively.

A returning Paul Burns made it into the top 100 with Declan Teague also on the road to recovery just three places outside it. As ever, Michael McKeown was there and turned in his usual sound performance.

Gavin Oakes turned in another well paced run and was just behind Michael at the line.

Natasha Savage was the only East Down girl to take part in the Primary School Girls’ race, performing well as usual so well done to her.

The Primary School boys turned out an East Down trio, Andrew McGrattan, Oran Cunningham and Michael O’Connor, performing well in the increasingly muddy conditions while the U-13 girls’ squad suffered from withdrawals due to illness and the resultant sympathy symptoms experienced by their friends.

Those who did make it to the venue then managed to miss the start. The U-13 boys did well to compensate, Tim Prenter taking an impressive 14th place, followed by Tony Carson 24th, Matthew McGrattan 44th and Philip Doran in 47th.

Laura Gardiner led the U-15 girls’ squad crossing the line in 11th place with excellent performances by Olivia Mooney and Aoife Cochrane, both looking strong throughout, with Laura Green and Elisha Surginor not far behind and Sarah Glover from the U-13 age group getting a consolation run in the higher age group.

Daniel Atkinson, Owen Edwards and Christopher O’Connor all seemed to find the going tough in the U-15 boys’ race, over a distance of 3.6K, but all finished within 40 seconds of each other and will have another year in this category.

Ellen Erskine made a welcome return to action in the highly competitive U-17 girls’ category and finished well in what was a fast run race.

The next important event is in three weeks time when the NI and Ulster Junior and Masters Championships take place in Lurgan Park with the squad from East Down raring to go.

The following weekend on February 1 it’s the Rollercoaster Races, at Downpatrick Racecourse beginning at 12noon and climaxing with the senior race over 25 furlongs (5K or 3.1 miles in non-horse racing parlance) at 2m in this unique setting.

This is not a cross country event as all the races take place on the perimeter road so there will be no wet or muddy feet to contend with and while there are neither hurdles nor fences to negotiate they are not flat races either. Entries for all races will be taken on the day.

Tweets by @TheDownRecorder