Gary Murray from Letterkenny ran a superb race yesterday on a tough day for running on Sligo racecourse to win the National Inter-Counties Men's Senior Cross Country Championship. The Donegal man finished the gruelling 10k course thirty seconds clear of his nearest rival Mark Kenneally. Athenry man Paul McNamara ran a great race in fifth having paced his effort better than many of his rivals. Paul progressed through the field strongly after the halfway point moving confidently up from twelfth to his eventual finishing place in fifth.

Gary Thornton of GCH had a breakthrough run in ninth place. Gary ran towards the front of the field for the entire way and remained ahead of Paul McNamara for much of the journey. Combined with his fine recent run in Hollymount this effort shows Gary is in great form at the moment. Long may it continue! Mike O’Connor was the next scoring Galway finisher having struggled a little over the muddy 10k course. Ian Egan (GCH) also had a strong race finishing in 61st place. Martin Corcoran of Loughrea AC ran up to his usual exceptionally high standard and Rudhairi Geraghty and Liam Morris, both GCH members, filled the rest of the scoring positions for the County.

One of the fastest improving runners in the County, Mark Davies of Craughwell AC, improved once again to outrun our own Peter Delmer, who ran strongly himself. Mark, a recent convert to the sport is improving his PB’s every time he steps onto a racecourse these days and will figure at the front of many races if yesterday’s performance is any indication of his potential.

The final Galway runner to stumble over the line was Mick Rice. Relieved race organisers immediately recalled several search parties and a pack of semi-trained blood hounds from the descending gloom once he had finished.