Reed retains provincial title

Individual silver medallist Colin Roberts, Paddy Mhor Doherty fourth and Paul McCafferty 15th, completed the successful quartet as the Spartans big guns simply blew away the opposition on a sticky Scotstown circuit.

The Female Spartans were also on the podium, claiming double team bronze in the Intermediate and Masters championships, where they were fronted by Catherine Lilburn and Jackie McGinley respectively and city rivals Foyle Valley did really well to grab team silver in the Mens Junior championship, with Pius McIntyre and Scott Rankin their top finishers in a race won convincingly by North Belfast with Willowfield in third spot The red vests challange in this one came to naught as they failed to finish a scoring sextet.

The big win of the day undoubtdly was Declan Reeds majestic effort in the opening Masters 8K. In the absence of the 2011 second and third placed finishers, David Morwood of Annadale and Omagh Harrier Stephen Duncan, the Spartan strode unchallanged to an impressive successful defence of the title, his seemingly effortless fluency making a nonsence of the difficult sticky underfoot conditions.

At the line he had almost a full minute to spare over the chasers, led home impressively by Colin Roberts who had too much gas on the final lap for Annadale’s Paul Carroll and took a well merited silver medal by a five second margin.

Early on with Reed already going away, Roberts and Carroll were tracked by the in form Paddy Mhor Doherty and Wright of Annadale. The latter then fell back as Doherty battled to stay in touch in the contest for the individual medals but despite arguably his best performance over the country he could never quite close enough to threaten the outcome. Behind the leaders Paul McCafferty was in the mix with Eoghan Furey for the vital fourth scoring spot on the City of Derry team and it was clear from way out that the team title was being ripped away from Annadale and Belfast and heading to the North West.

Reed was in imperious isolation up front; Roberts matched Carrolls every move and turned on the after burners late on the last lap to clinch the runners up spot; Doherty finished delighted for fourth and McCafferty, although under a bit of pressure with a stitch on the penultimate lap, rallied well for 15th to seal the final team medal with Furey impressing in a close up 18th. The Spartans were comfortale team champions, led by Reeds glorious golden individual successs and their 22 points total was way, way, clear of Finn Valleys 62 and Annadale on 68.

The Womens races followed and both City of Derry and Inishowen AC would emerge as medal contenders in the Intermediate and Masters categories as the one 4K race acccomodated both championships. Former Spartan Cathy McCourt was an easy individual winner for North Belfast with Inishowen Masters duo Helena Crossan and Evelyn McGinley nailing top ten overall finishes as the North Donegal club missed Masters team gold by just three points behind Lagan Valley.

The Derry Masters squad were missing a few key members but sparked by a good run from Jackie McGinley, well supported by Roisin Lynch who won the F60 individual title; Una Gavin and Linda Hall the red vests did enough to claim well deserved team bronze. Catherine Lilburn in 11th overall led the Spartans Intermediate squad to a welcome team bronze behind Lagan Valley and Omagh Harriers in a hard fought contest with only eight points separating the top three teams.

Catherine found the underfoot conditions difficult but as ever she battled hard for her 11th place overall finish and fifth Intermediate; Sarah Mahon was next home, followed by Ciara Fraser and Hannah McGowan and the tired and muddy Spartans were delighted to find they were third team after a tough and demanding trek in soft conditions. Lagan Valley got gold by three points from Omagh who were a further five clear of the local red vests.

It possibly could have been better but Provincial medals are fiercely contested and the delighted Spartans were happy to bring some medals home,irrespective of colour.

Pre-race favourite Jarlath Falls of Ballymena/Antrim finished second in last years Junior in Stormont but made no mistake this time with as covincing a margin as Declan Reed in the earlier Masters race. He was always in front and eventually finished well ahead of runner up Alan O Hara of North Belfast and Liam Venney of East Down. North Belfast packed well to comfortably claim the iconic War Memorial Trophy easily ahead of a battling Foyle Valley squad and Willowfield Harriers. The muted Spartans challange ended early on with Noel Logan limping out of the race with a recurance of a calf problem and the red vests were out of the six to score team battle.

Valley’s leading pair Pius McIntyre and Scott Rankin both had impressive runs a week earlier at the Lough 5mile road race in Tyrone but found the cloying Monaghan terrain not so acccomodating on Saturday but they plugged away doggedly just off the leading group and hung on strongly to finish ninth and tenth as Chris McGuinness came through for 12th to lay the base for a Valley team medal charge. North Belfast however were packing better with their top two in second and fifrth and behind McGuinness the yellow and black vests were gathering.

Declan Doherty had started strongly but like many in the field found the conditions and the over distance very demanding post race opinion had it that the race was actually seven miles rather than 10K and indeed the finish times would suggest that. Declan, Ciaran Graham and Teague Whoriskey dug in for the long haul and hung on magnificently for the team. Ciaran finished 31st, Declan 34th and a shattered Teague 49th and this was enough to clinch the team silver medals for the delighted purple vests. North Belfast had their sixth scorer home in 23rd place and with a total of 85 points were comprehensive winners ahead of Valleys 145 and Willowfield on 185.

Like their city rivals Valley were missing some key men but on the day North would have taken some beating and the Foyle boys on duty did really well to add Junior team silver to their Novice team gold of a few months ago. James Brown led the Spartans home in 18th, a good effort in his first competitive outing after a lengthy injury absence; teenager Connor Doherty was drafted in late to compensate for those missing in action and stuck to his task for 37th; Mark Mullan 39th, Scott Galbraith 44th and Dara Furey 45th were the other Spartans to finish.

Back to the Male Masters and the Spartans also had a “B” squad in action. Dermot Connolly and Sammy McAnaney showed well for 29th and 37th in the big field; Oran McBride and Philip Donaghy ran most of the distance in tandem to finish 46th and 47th anf Peter Lilburn was not far behind in 52nd. Good to see Sammy back racing after an injury enforced absence.

Christy McMonagle of course won his M65 age group championship with yet another strong run and will now target overall honours in the NI Masters Winter League and the National M65 championships in Roscommon in early February.