Doohan and McGowan impress at Nationals
THERE was delight for Corran AC’s Sara Doohan who was the first woman home in the National Masters Cross Country in the Kilcoran Estate in Clarinbridge on Sunday. The big smile on Sara’s face at the finish said it all and she received lots of congratulations afterwards for her fantastic achievement.
There was other great results for Sligo runners at the competition in Galway.
North Sligo AC’s Feidhlim McGowan ran the best race of his career to finish 3rd in the National Intermediate Crosscountry Championships.
The 25-year-old North Sligo runner showed great strength and stamina in atrocious underfoot conditions to lead his club to team bronze. The men’s intermediate race was the last race of a 12 race programme which saw underfoot conditions deteriorate with each race, It looked like a quagmire when the 8k intermediate race was on and was not for the faint hearted. A 6 man group detached themselves from the main pack shortly after the 1st kilometre was reached and McGowan was in that bunch,Michael Harty from East Cork made a clear break from the group towards the end of the first of the four 2k lap loops, It looked as though anyone from the now five man group were fighting for the silver and bronze,with 2k to go it was a battle between Kevin Moore from DSD and McGowan with Moore taking the silver and the North Sligo man taking a well deserved but hard earned bronze. The rest of the North Sligo team put in sterling performances Eamon McAndrew had his best run yet in crosscountry for a man who does not like crosscountry he embraced the tough conditions and was rewarded with a great 16th position. His clubmate Aidan McMoreland was a model of consistency running a strong steady race he got the best out of himself finishing 22nd,Craig Brennan who could not run a step this past two and a half weeks through injury stepped up to the plate and put in a massive performance to finish 49th and put his team in 3rd position to take team bronze. Eamon Murphy had a fine run to finish 59th,David McCullagh had his best run yet in crosscountry finishing 61st and Alan Wallace in his first run at national level finished 72nd. The North Sligo women’s team were missing some of their top runners through flues etc but they battled hard and finished 6th in the team’s race. Aisling van Rensburg was the team’s top finisher in 26h place with Patricia McCosker just 5 places further back in 31st position. Andrea Horgan finished 38th with Trish Lee completing the team in 48th place