ATHLETIC/Leinster Schools Cross Country Championships: The only way to understand what it really means to run cross country is to go out and do it. What it really means to breathe hard, to feel every muscle burn, and still know that no one has you beaten until the finish line.
That was the experience for the 800 or so youngsters in yesterday's Leinster schools cross country championships - and especially in the Intermediate boys race.
When Brendan O'Neill made a bold move for glory almost a mile from home it seemed certain the St Michael's student would regain the title won on the same playing fields of Dublin City University a year ago.
Around the long, winding corner towards the finishing chute O'Neill was still striding freely, but not quite so fiercely.
Some 15 metres behind him was John Coghlan of Castleknock College, and suddenly he sensed his chance. With a stunning finishing kick, all so reminiscent of his famous father, he swept past O'Neill in the final few strides.
"I'm sure everyone else enjoyed that finish," said O'Neill afterwards, gracious in defeat and yet consoled by the fact that he'd missed several weeks of training through injury. Coghlan though is seen as a track specialist and this victory further swells his obvious potential.
Yesterday's two senior races ended with decidedly more convincing victories.
Rose Ann Galligan of Newbridge College just sat and waited before delivering her well-established sprint over the last 400 metres to collect the senior girls title. Galligan was the 13th best junior in Europe before Christmas and with proper nurturing can make her mark on the greater stages to come.
Danny Darcy then defended his senior boys title, and rarely has a winner looked more impressive. But then he too has great experience behind him, taking 11th in the European junior race in December when helping the Irish team to the silver medals.
He didn't hang around, though, and shortly after halfway had opened a long stretch of daylight on the chasing runners. At the finish the Leaving Cert student from Presentation DLS, Bagenalstown, had enough time to catch his breath, talk to schoolmates, and then welcome in the runners-up - Eoin Healy and Eoin McCormack.
Famed hurling college St Kieran's, Kilkenny, were the somewhat surprising winners of the senior boys team race, while another repeat winner was Sara Treacy of Kings Hospital in the Intermediate girls, she had enough to get the better of Suzanne Huet of Loreto, Foxrock.
A Kenyan-like surge from Chris Jones of St Fintan's, Sutton, helped secure his victory in the junior boys race, perhaps the most competitive of the day.
Such was the enthusiasm at the stampede of a start that several runners fell - the more forgettable way of understanding what it means to run cross country.
Mark Carroll, meanwhile, has confirmed his participation in next month's European Indoor Championships in Madrid. The 3,000-metre champion from five years ago had been eyeing a spring marathon, but an impressive return to form on the indoor track has convinced him to join Alistair Cragg in that event.
