Posted by By Cóilín Duffy
European Indoor bronze medallist Mary Cullen opened her competitive year in style as she led from the off in the Antrim International – IAAF Cross Country Permit – banishing the disappointment of her 12th place at the European’s in Dublin last month.
Cullen was told to sit in the pack and follow the pace of Britain’s Hayley Yelling-Higham – the winner of the gold medal in Santry.
But Cullen, 25, showed great confidence from the off as she gave an excellent display of front running to claim top-spot just over half a minute clear from Hungarian Aniko Kalovics.
A heavy fog lifted just before the race, and despite overcast conditions the rain stayed away, with soft conditions underfoot.
On a grey afternoon the Irish athlete roared to a convincing win, dominating the 5.4 kilometre race from start to finish, buoyed by a large home support.
Jess Sparke was the first Briton to come home – finishing third, 10 seconds adrift of Kalovics.
A lot of the pre-race focus had been on Yelling-Higham, but the Dorchester athlete failed to feature inside the top-three at any stage of the race, eventually claiming fifth spot.
Cullen was thrilled to open 2010 on a positive note, and bounce back from the heart-break of her Dublin disappointment.
“I wanted it so badly in Dublin that I think I might just have stepped it too far thinking that more, more, more instead of thinking less is more maybe. You live and learn through these things,” she said.
And Cullen revealed that former Irish Olympian Sonia O’Sullivan was a key motivator in getting her back on track.
“I just couldn’t get my head around what happened. I was searching for answers and talking to people and sometimes you just don’t have an answer.
“I talked to Sonia and she explained about ’96 in Atlanta and how it went for her. You have to be just feisty going into a race and I just felt going into Dublin that I was almost tired and a little bit drained going in and you aren’t going to get your best out then unfortunately.”
In her first event at the Greenmount campus Cullen was keen to put in a positive display, ahead of some warm-training in Australia, with the North Sligo athlete heading Down Under on Tuesday.
“I’m heading off to Australia now for two months and I wanted a good performance before I head down there and get ready for Barcelona.”
“We can’t keep looking back it’s always good to look forward – the European Cross Country is in Portugal next year, so that’s something to look forward too also,” she said.
For the second year in succession an African athlete took control in the mens race, with Kenyan Mike Kiegan succeeding Ethiopia’s Imane Merge as the mens Senior champion.
Kiegan benefitted from switching to longer spikes before the race as he gave a powerful display, finishing almost a minute clear over Andy Vernon, 23 from England.
There was a battle until the finish for third spot, until Mexican Juan Luis Barrios edged the bronze medal just ahead of Eritrea’s Teweldeberhan Mengisteab.
Kiegan, who sustained a serious knee injury in November 2006 which ruled him out for a year is glad to have got off to a positive start to 2010.
“It was a very heavy course but I have doing plenty of gym work in Kenya at the moment so that’s why it was so easy for me,” he said.
It was Kiegan’s second race win inside a week after he celebrated his 24th birthday last week with victory in the Cross Ouest-France.
“I think this year I have to work hard. Right now I am in good shape and I will go back to Kenya for Kenyan trials for the World Cross Country Championships in February.”
“Next week I will race in San Sebastian in Spain and I am very hopeful of making the Kenyan side while I hope to take part in the 5000 metre track event in the Commonwealth Games.”
TOP TEN FINISHERS:
SENIOR WOMEN
1 M Cullen (IRE), 18:45; 2 A Kalovics (HUN), 19:16; 3 J Sparke (ENG), 19:26; 4 F Britton (IRE), 19:30; 5 H Yelling-Higham (GBR), 19:39; 6 D DiCrescenzo (USA), 19:41; 7 K Wootton (ENG), 19:42; 8 D Byrne (IRL), 19:54; 9 L Kenney (GBR), 19:59; 10 L Deadman (ENG) 20:03.
SENIOR MENS
1 M Kiegan (KEN), 27:49; 2 A Vernon (ENG), 28:40; 3 J Luis Barrios (MEX), 28:51; 4 T Mengisteab (ERI), 28:55; 5 M Skinner (ENG), 29:04; 6 M Goose (ENG), 29:24; 7 S Scullion (NI), 29:43; 8 C Pfigul (AUS), 29:48; 9 D Hawkins (SCOT), 29:52; 10 M Mulhare (IRE), 30:01.
