Enniskillen man Conan McCaughey produced an accomplished performance on Saturday as he claimed the NI and Ulster Cross-Country title at Gransha.

McCaughey hit the front with two laps of the course to go and quickly opened up a gap as he went to finish 27 seconds clear of second-placed Turki Eskander.

McCaughey, who runs for North Belfast Harriers, has now won NI and Ulster individual titles at Novice, Intermediate and Senior levels – becoming the first person to achieve it.

He believes that Saturday was his best achievement, to date.

“I would say that, just with the standard of the field, it was a really strong field with lots of local athletes,” he said.

Conan felt that he got his tactics spot-on during the race.

“ I had probably peaked at the right time and my coach Mark Kirk had a good plan going into the race of not doing too much work early on, just sit in the pack, and I felt really good.

“With two laps to go, about two and a half miles out, I made a move and got away from the big pack and opened up a gap straight away and that really built the confidence to keep pushing on and keep opening the gap.

“It worked out really well.” Having been trying for a number of years to get this title, it was a big goal for the runner this year.

“I have never won a Senior title before so I was maybe seen as a ‘nearly’ man, but I really wanted to win that Senior title because there is so many greats who have won it in the past.

“ It is always a very difficult race to win but this year training had been going well and the field was quite open, so I knew it was my opportunity.

“I was very nervous the week before but it went to plan on the day and I was delighted.

“Our team [North Belfast Harriers] came second and it would have been nice to have won the team as well,” he added.

McCaughey will now look to step up in distance to the marathon and he is hoping to take part in his first at the end of April.

“I’m hoping to do my debut marathon – the most I’ve done is a half marathon so that is going to be towards the end of April in Wrexham,” he said.

“There is a really good field competing with a lot of the top Irish marathon runners going over for it. With it being my first marathon it will be a step into the unknown but I’ll see over the next two months and I’ll just focus on that longer distance at training.”

So, what are his hopes for it?

“I have a time in mind that I would like to do but I will just have to see how things go.

“I don’t want to be complacent about it, because 26.2 miles can find you out if you’re not in shape, but I’ll certainly be doing everything I can to perform on the day and try and stay with the top Irish guys.

“I think the longer distance will suit me; I’ve always been strong over the longer training sessions and I’m looking forward to finally getting to do one,” he concluded.