Enniskillen Running Club’s Conán McCaughey ran a brilliant race to take second place in the Men’s Intermediate race at the NI & Ulster Intermediate and Masters Cross Country Championships which were held at the University of Ulster Coleraine on Saturday. McCaughey finished just ahead of former ERC runner, Stephen Prentice, who now runs for Annadale Striders.

In all, twenty two Enniskillen Running Club members were among the hundreds of athletes who travelled to take part in event with the club sending four teams to these championships, all of whom performed excellent on the day against a very high standard of talent.

Given the wet conditions in the days leading up to the event the course had to be changed to run five laps of a challenging 1.5K track, for a total of 7.5k. In the true spirit of cross country this course was extremely wet, muddy and hard going from the start.

Eamonn Monaghan was the first man wearing the green, white and black vest of the Enniskillen club to cross the finish line in this first race.

He completed the demanding run in 23rd place in an extremely competitive field. The second Enniskillen man in was Ciaran McSherry, who continues to impress with another quality run. Richard Mason and Paul Somerville were next followed by Michael Walsh, Sean Carlin and John McDonnell. This masters team from Enniskillen took tenth place overall in the Championship.

The next two races to commence were the women’s intermediates and masters, who ran the 4.5k race together.

In the intermediates, Karen Dolan crossed the line first with an impressive 20th place finish. The next ERC women to finish the three lap course was Heather Williams and Linda Walsh, both of whom proved their worth to this team who finished with a quality sixth place finish.

One of the most impressive performances in the championship was put in by Oonagh Fitzpatrick who was the first women home for Enniskillen in the masters race. Oonagh ran a remarkably strong race to finish in 29th position. Oonagh was closely followed by the next three Enniskillen runners Andrea Kennedy, Roisin McDonnell and Maria Magee and the team took ninth place.

The crowning event was the Men’s Intermediates which featured some of the biggest names in Ulster cross country.

The race was held over a gruelling seven laps (10.5k) of a course that had been softened up by the hundreds of previous runners. The Enniskillen team was lead to the starting line by Conán McCaughey, who came into this event as one of the top favourites. Conán led the way for the first three laps before the top three runners broke away from the pack.

These three included Glasslough Harrier Conor Duffy and former ERC athlete Stephen Prentice, now running for Annadale Striders. As the men began the seventh and final lap, Duffy made his move and broke away with a surge. Conán did his best to stay with the Irish International and managed to put some distance between himself and Stephen Prentice. This was how the race finished with Conán taking an impressive second place in the championship.

Although the excitement was focussed around the front of the race, the rest of the Enniskillen runners were also very impressive. Stephen Beacom and Ciaran Clancy each ran extremely well to finish behind Conán.

Paul Carron, and Tom Sheridan worked together and crossed the finish line within seconds of each other and Finbar Maguire, in his first venture in cross country, completed the field for Enniskillen.

The success of the Enniskillen Running Club on the day should bode well for the team as they play host to the next event on the cross country calendar.

The Fermanagh cross country will take place this Saturday at the Necarne Estate with the first race, the boys/girls under 13’s, kicking off at 11.45am.