National Masters cross country gold for tireless Pauline Curley

The National Masters and Intermediate Cross Country Championships were staged in Lough Key Forest Park, Co Roscommon, last Sunday. Ground conditions were soft and muddy, and allied to one very steep hill, made for a testing course. The first race up was the Master Women's race with Tullamore Harriers Pauline Curley hoping to improve on her third placing in these championships last year. Pauline was in the leading group right from the start and soon went into the lead. She forced the pace and only Mary Scully from Mullingar could manage to keep up. With less than a mile to go, Scully passed Curley and quickly opened a ten-metre gap. But the vastly experienced Curley didn't panic and set about the task of reeling her rival in. Roared on by many supporters, Pauline got back up to Scully, passed her and showed great strength in powering home to victory by a margin of 25 metres. Liz Cuskelly ran bravely in the tough conditions to finish in 60th position. Next up was the Master Men, who raced a distance of 7000 metres. Noel Kelly ran a great race to come home in 13th place, with John Harkin also excelling in 24th. George Webb was placed 64th , just ahead of Brendan Abbott in 66th. Liam Dunne had one of his best runs in a while to finish 73rd. The Tullamore Over-40 team won the bronze medal in the team competition. The Intermediate Women's race saw Mary Bracken first home for Tullamore in 34th place, with Michelle Mullaney hot on her heels in 35th. Nita McLoughlin had a good run to finish 61st, followed by Evelyn Herlihy in 64th. Mags Grennan completed the Tullamore scoring in 66th. The Intermediate Men's race over 10,000 metres was run in increasingly worsening ground conditions. Ferbane's Paul Buckley ran a great race to finish 9th. Declan Fahey looked strong throughout and finished a credible 19th. Dave Fox took a giant step forward in his fledging career by having his best run to date, coming home in 23rd place. He was closely followed by Catch Grennan in 25th, with Eddie Garry in 36th. This gave Tullamore third place in the club competition. This quartet, along with Mark Serviss in 40th place, and the aforementioned Buckley, helped Offaly to third in the county rankings behind Dublin and Clare.