Brave Forsyth just misses out on bronze joy
NEWCASTLE’S Ryan Forsyth had the race of his life in yesterday’s Spar European Cross Country in Tilburg, but he agonisingly just missed out on a medal in the U23 event.
The 22-year-old is a student at the University of Colorado and recently finished an impressive 11th in the NCAA Cross Country Championships. Despite this good form, no one expected him to be in contention for a medal in the Netherlands.
Forsyth clearly had other ideas as he led the entire field at the end of the first lap and was in the bronze medal position halfway through the final lap.
However, he was just caught at the end when Hugo Hay of France got the verdict by one second.
Forsyth was 12 seconds behind winner Jimmy Gressier of France, who took team gold with Ireland finishing sixth.
Forsyth will be trying to improve his best 5,000m track time next year, which is an impressive 13 minutes 41 seconds.
There was disappointment for the Irish Women’s U20 team as medal prospect Sarah Healy took a bad tumble halfway through the 4.3km event when she was with the leading group.
The double European track champion then made valiant efforts to claw her way back but could never quite close the gap.
She finished in ninth place, one position behind team-mate Emma O’Brien in a race won by Nadia Battoclette of Italy.
Had Healy not fallen, the Irish team could have got a bronze medal instead of sixth place as they were only three points behind third-placed Turkey.
The Irish U20 Men’s team finished fifth with 55 points.
The Irish Women’s Senior team struggled with the muddy conditions and finished a rather disappointing 11th. The best performer was Sarah Treacy who was 26th, followed by Ciara Mageean (43rd), Michelle Finn (51st), Anne Marie McGlynn (57th), Fionnuala Ross (62nd) and Kerry O’Flaherty (64th). Turkey’s Yasemin Cann won a third individual title.
The Men’s Senior team took seventh place with the individual title going to Filip Ingebrigsten of Norway. DOUBLE Irish rally champion Josh Moffett rounded off an outstanding season with his second cross-channel win in the forests of the Lake District.
Moffett, already winner of the Irish Tarmac and Irish Forestry Championships, scored a last stage victory on the Grizedale Stages, he and co-driver Keith Moriarty bringing their R5 Ford Fiesta home to a 44-second win over the WRC Fiesta of Steven Petch and Michael Wilkinson.
Petch, son of a former national champion, led until the final stage with Moffett 15 seconds behind. But trouble on the long Grizedale stage cost him almost a minute, allowing the Monaghan driver, who was second last year, to snatch an unexpected victory.
John Wink and John Forrest in an R5 Hyundai i20 finished in third place.
Ballymoney driver Alan Carmichael made his debut in the first right-hand-drive R5 Hyundai to take to the stages and brought it to the finish in ninth place. Two other Ulster drivers who made the end-of-season trip to Cumbria didn’t fare so well, Adrian Hetherington and Vivian Hamill hitting trouble and finishing well down the list.
Meanwhile, Wayne Boyd had to settle for fifth LMP3 place in round two of the Asian Le Mans sportscar series at a wet Mount Fuji in Japan.
Having finished second in the opening round in Shanghai a fortnight ago, Ulsterman Boyd and his United Autosports team-mates Chris Buncombe and Garret Grist had their hopes of a first win raised when they qualified their Ligier on the front row of the LMP3 grid.
But a slow pit stop for Buncombe and then a drive-through penalty for Boyd during his final stint of the four-hour race proved costly as United Autosports’ second LMP3 Ligier of Kay van Berlo, Matt Bell and Christian England came through to take victory.
Phil Hanson and Paul di Resta in the Anglo-American team’s LMP2 Ligier started on pole but finished second, losing out after a late safety car period to the Algarve Pro Racing’s Andrea Pizzitola and Harrison Newey. But they lead the Championship overall.