Great Edinburgh XC: Kerry O’Flaherty impresses for Ireland while Fionnuala Ross secures Inter-District title!

Simply Health Great Edinburgh XC (inc Scottish Inter-District XC Championships) 2018:

Northern Ireland ladies Kerry O’Flaherty (Newcastle AC / Richard Rodgers) and Fionnuala Ross (Shettleston Harriers / Dermot Kerr) produced excellent performances at the Simply Health Great Edinburgh XC, which also included the Scottish Inter-District XC Championships (Saturday 13th January 2018).

In the popular 4 x 1k cross country relay, Kerry was joined on the Ireland team by Eoin Everard, Laura Crowe and Kieran Kelly.  Eoin, Laura and Kieran kicked off the Ireland challenge in that order, before Olympian Kerry took the baton for the anchor leg.  The Newcastle AC star produced a gutsy effort to guide Ireland to an excellent 4th place in a time of 11:47.  The race was won by Great Britain in 11:33 (1st place), with Belgium and Europe securing 2nd place and 3rd place respectively.

In the feature international races, Leonard Korir (USA) won the men’s 8k in 24:32 (1st place), while Yasmin Can (Europe Select) sealed victory in the ladies 6k in 20:58 (1st place).  Ireland’s Fionnuala McCormack crossed the line in 21:42 for 11th place.

Earlier in the race programme, Northern Ireland and Ireland international Fionnuala Ross continued what has been an excellent last twelve months, when she secured the Inter-Districts title with a strong performance and wll-deserved win.  Fionnuala covered the 6k route in 22:27 (1st place) to win by seven seconds.

In the men’s 8k race, another Scotland based NI athlete, Eoin Lennon (Carnethy HRC) claimed 15th place in 27:20.  The race was won by Kristian Jones (Dundee Hawkhill Harriers) in 25:55 (1st place).

Full results from the event are available HERE.

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