McKillop Vows To Win the World Championships
Michael McKillop, the world 800 meters Paralympics champion has vowed to keep his present form of fitness for the upcoming World Championships. McKillop depicted his impressive performance when he won the Bobby Rea Memorial Cross
Country meeting held last week at Jordanstown.
The 20-year old young athlete seemed to be completely in control of a ten man group at the 8k event run, looking firm with the fast conditions. However, at the early stages of the run, there looked no one eager enough to take the
lead.
Andrew Agnew, the runner from the host club eventually took pace with a determined lap. However, despite his breakaway efforts, McKillop easily reined him in. Mckillop, the young runner seemed to have unending reserves of energy
that remained even after crossing the finishing line, as he was looking as fresh as he was prior to competing in the race. Agnew, who had achieved a lead of 5 seconds over the Paralympics champion, eventually had to give in before crossing the finishing line.
Another major turn in the race was observed when Cian O’Reilly from Annale, eventually snatched the third position from Ciaran Doherty, the winner of the last year’s race. He was followed by Noel Collins from Finn Valley and the
veteran athlete David Morwood.
After winning the race, McKillop looked satisfied with his performance. For him, it was a rather good race before leaving to have warm weather training in Florida. After finishing with the training, Mckillop, along with Jason Smyth,
the sprint champion for World Paralympics, will be travelling to Christchurch for participating in the world Championships which are going to be held at the end of January 2011. Both athletes are hopeful to repeat their performances at the Beijing Olympics.
After having the NI and Ulster even age group champions for the hectic 12 race programme, the organizers of the event were really delighted with the support offered to them.
The women’s senior 5k event race was won by Sharon Bird from North Belfast who made it to the finishing line 3 seconds ahead of the close rival Cathy McCourt. The third position was claimed by Karen Alexander from Sperrin, she
was followed by last year’s winner, Judi Graham.
The most competitive age group observed at the event was that of the Boy’s under 18 6k event. The best performance from the groups was shown by Ruari Finnegan who happened to be the under 16 champion last year. he had complete
control of the race till the very end, and when he finished, he was yards ahead of his closest rival Stephen Kerr from Armgh. Defeating Eoghan Totton from Newcastle after a grappling competition, Andrew Monaghan snatched the bronze medal out of the event.
In the equivalent women’s race competition, Emma Mitchell from Ireland took and maintained her lead throughout the race, right from the beginning till the end. While crossing the finishing line, she was altogether 30 seconds ahead
of Laura Casey from St. Peter. Sara Moore from Omagh eventually made it to the third position in the event.
The under sixteen Girls’ event proved to be a solo performance for Lagan Valley, the other two sports were occupied by her team mates Emer Magee and Yasmin Wilson. In the under 16 competition for boys, Conor Christie from Springwell
confirmed his pre favourtite tag; he outdid his rivals with a significant margin on the track.
In order to encourage the young athletes, the organizers decided to upload pictures of the winners on the facebook page of the Athletics NI.
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