A large group of St Michael’s athletes travelled to Belfast for Sunday afternoon’s Malcolm Cup cross country at a damp and increasingly muddy Queens playing fields.

In a series of very competitive juvenile races on an excellently appointed course, the Enniskillen school had a number of top six finishers across all three age groups, and behind these there were a host of other excellent runs as they build towards the post Christmas schools events.

St. Michael’s prize winners were:

U13 3rd Darragh Boyle, 4th Sean Lunney, 6th Bradley Baxter

U15 2nd Jack Donnelly, 3rd Nathan Coyle, 6th Piaras Toner

U17 2nd Tiarnan McManus, 5th Oisin Donohue, 6th Ryan Hegarty

In the senior Malcolm Cup race over 6km, the very talented trio of St Michael’s athletes were prominent at the head of the huge field from the gun and stayed in the leading group throughout the four laps with Frank Buchanan finishing fourth overall and taking the Andrew Campbell cup for first U20 with Jamie McDonnell taking seventh in the overall rankings and second place U20 just ahead of Ben Warnock, ninth overall and fourth junior.

Overall it was a very useful outing and some valuable racing experience with the schools’ championships rapidly approaching in the new year.