Enniskillen athlete Conan McCaughey, running in the North Belfast Harriers vest, produced a fine run last Friday night as he powered his way to a silver medal in the NI & Ulster 10,000m Championships at the Mary Peters Track.

And McCaughey is now focused on trying to produce a Personal Best when he competes at the Irish Senior Track and Field Championships in Dublin in three weeks time.

Last Friday night the Fermanagh man recorded a time of 30.55.93mins to clinch his first medal in the 10,000m, coming home behind winner James Edgar who finished in 30.44.01 mins.

“It was good to see those efforts around the Fermanagh roads in recent months paying off,” said a delighted McCaughey.

“There was a good entry for the championships this year because obviously there has been a lot less races and the best distance runners in Ulster were there. So, to claim my first medal in the 10,000m was pleasing.”

Eventual winner Edgar was the pre-race favourites and he set a hot pace as he pulled away from the field but McCaughey stuck to the plan set out by coach Mark Kirk.

“The plan was that in the warm conditions not to go too fast.

“The winner went out hard but I was happy to run tactically and in the last 600m I was able to kick away from Andrew Annett who came third to secure second. I was pretty happy with it, I had planned for a strong finish and I was able to do that,” he added.

Next up for Conan is the Irish Senior Championships which are scheduled to be held in three weeks time.

“With it being the national championships the competition is going to be a lot stronger. You will have Olympians competing so it will be a good test for myself but I’m hoping for a Personal Best and if I could finish in the top eight that would be very pleasing for me,” he stated.