Medals galore for Newcastle’s best

Medals galore for Newcastle’s best

24 February 2016

NEWCASTLE AC returned home from Saturday’s Northern Ireland and Ulster Cross-Country Championships in Lurgan with the ladies individual and men’s team titles in a best ever day for the club in its 35-year history.

First up was Shalene McMurray (inset), winner three weeks ago in the Northern Ireland and Ulster Intermediate Cross Country at Coleraine. As she did that day, she set off in Lurgan with clear intent and after the initial quarter mile she had already established a 10 metre lead over the rest of the field.

She literally never looked back pulling away to win by nearly a minute. A fantastic achievement for Shalene who has been putting in her first ever serious cross county season and in winning the title emulates her club mate Kerry O’Flaherty who won the title back in 2008.

Shalene was well-supported by her team-mates Mari Troeng in 17th, Rita Devlin in 51st and Paulette Thomson in 62nd with the team finishing in 8th place overall.

David McNeilly came into the club almost a decade ago declaring that he would like to be part of a Newcastle team that would win the junior/intermediate title on the cross country. However, it was not an easy goal to realise and a few lean years followed with the club not even fielding a team. McNeilly has been the club cross country captain for over three years now and he has steered, encouraged and pressurised individuals and gelled them into a team that after finishing last in the junior/intermediate in 2013 went on to emulate the 1986 club-winning team to bring home the junior/intermediate title in Lurgan Park in 2014 and then to win the NI Cross-Country League in 2015 with a bronze team medal at the NI and Ulster Senior Cross Country Championships in Lurgan Park a year ago.

The team arrived knowing that its strength in depth was the best it probably had ever been. Seamy Lynch was in the leading bunch from the off and covered every move until Spain-based City of Derry’s Aaron Doherty made a decisive break.

Lynch gamely held on as the course continued to cut up such that by lap six there was mud everywhere and then more mud. Lynch came home in a brilliant third place in 40:42 to secure individual bronze and arguably his best race ever.

Eoghan Totten, who achieved 31:09 for 10,000m on the track nearly three years ago, has had a difficult time since then. However, his natural talent is never in doubt and while in Lurgan he struggled with the early pace, he relentlessly pushed on and on to come through to an excellent fourth place, only seven seconds behind Lynch in the end. 

Maybe this will be the launch pad for him to make real progress going forward over 5k and 10k. New club recruit Ian Whiteside is exiled to Edinburgh, but is a regular visitor to the Mournes for racing and training with his new club mates. Whiteside had a brilliant run to come home in 6th place in 41:13.

Proving the strength in depth, David O’Flaherty made it a fourth scorer for the club in the top 10 coming home in 9th place in 41:33 – again making big progress in the second half of the race. 21st last year and with his pre-Christmas form indicating a top 30 would be a struggle, he has put in seven weeks of consistent training and the results are dramatic with this representing his best ever race by a long way, with much more to come. 

Fifth scorer was another new recruit David Simpson. Simpson had been talking with the club chair about joining the club for years and this winter he finally bit the bullet. Simpson’s fitness has been improving over recent weeks and ran superbly well to come home in 13th place in 42:09. 

Final scorer on the team was David Steele in 21st place in 43:30. Steele doubted his form before the race but clearly had no cause to – he ran out of his skin to come home strongly and secure the victory for the red and yellows.

It’s not just the six scorers that matter, but the runners that finish in seventh, eighth and so on can help push the scores of rival clubs higher. David McNeilly was seventh man home in 26th in 44:19 and although a little disappointed not to make it into the top six, was absolutely delighted that the team scored the victory. 

Fast improving Aidy Brown came home a brilliant 27th in 44:26 in what was again a best race ever for another club man. Paul Carlin has been struggling with injury, but still was 9th man home in 35th in 44:54 with Marty Melville next home in 43rd in 45:25.

He was followed by Rathfriland’s finest, David Hicks, running strongly for 58th in 46:51 with Colum Campbell hot on his tail in 59th in 45:53 to cap off a really good season for him too.