THERE was no luck for any of the local athletes in the Northern Ireland squad at the home countries masters cross country international in Singleton Park, Swansea, last Saturday.
Indeed the only Northern Ireland medallist was the M35 individual winner, North Belfast Harrier, David Morwood.
Seven City of Derry Spartans were in action and all delivered strong runs on a very hilly, muddy and testing Singleton Park course; Jacqu
eline McGinley and Bernie Ryan contested the women's 6K race in the F40 F45 age groups respectively.
Both produced strong runs in their international debuts with Jacqueline leading home the Northern Ireland quartet in her grade and Bernie following Alynne Shannon as the second NI F45 finisher.
In the Ulster competitive M45 race Declan McCarthy, Gerry Duddy and Dermot Connolly finished 1, 2, 3 for the Northern Ireland sextet.
These were all good efforts from the red vests and there was another one in the M50 category from Sammy McAnaney, who put a lengthy injury problem behind him to finish second Northern Ireland finisher in his category.
The final local runner in action was Gerry Lynch in the M60 grade and he led home his NI squad in an excellent fifth place overall.
Unfortunately this put him some 20 seconds off an individual medal in a race won by Michael McEvilly running in the Republic of Ireland colours and the Northern Ireland quartet were also pipped for the third place team medals.
This weekend's race action once again puts Masters athletes in the spotlight as the Northern Ireland vets association stage their five mile road championships over the Ormeau Park course in Belfast.
Several local masters will make the trip to take on what should be a classy field. Meanwhile down in Mayo last weekend two more locals, Diarmuid Grant and Kevin Carlin were in the UUJ team contesting the Irish Universities Road Relay championships.
The team finished eighth from 21 in a big field and both ran well over the 2 mile leg (Grant) and one mile leg (Carlin).
Meanwhile City of Derry AC have confirmed that their annual North West Cross Country Championships on Saturday, December 20, in Gransha, will include juvenile age group races.
These races will facilitate local schools preparing their teams for the district and Ulster schools championships, which take place early in the new year.
The full article contains 420 words and appears in Londonderry Sentinel newspaper.
