Kevin Mulcaire leads field at schools cross country

If we have a fitter, leaner, stronger schoolboy athlete than Kevin Mulcaire right now then he's hiding out somewhere. No one could touch Mulcaire at Sligo racecourse on Saturday, his runaway victory in the senior boys' event quite possibly the most impressive in the history of these championships.

That is saying something: this year marks the centenary of Irish Schools Athletics, many athletes going on to great things after winning this title, and yet Mulcaire's performance was utterly consummate and entirely without flaw.

Running in the colours of St Flannan’s in Ennis, he trotted within the pack for the first half of the 6.5km race, before gently galloping away – winning by some 20 seconds to defend the senior title won last year, on top of the back-to-back intermediate titles he won the two years previous.

Not that Mulcaire was beating ordinary athletes. Leinster champion Jack O’Leary from Clongowes emptied his tank in the chase and ended up fifth, while Peter Lynch from St Kieran’s, Kilkenny, held tough to take second, ahead of the exceptionally athletic James Edgar from Friends’ School in Lisburn.

“Well the first half was comfortable alright, but you’re never that comfortable at the finish,” Mulcaire told me immediately afterwards, without the faintest mist of sweat on his face. “No one really wants to run harder than they have to. We had a team as well, as I knew the longer it stayed packed the better for the team, really.”

Paid tribute

Indeed the St Flannan’s team ended up second, behind St Aidan’s of Dublin, and Mulcaire made it clear he’s not a one-man show: he immediately paid tribute to his coach Pat Hogan, at the Ennis Track club, who despite a health setback last year continues to carefully nurture the special talent that Mulcaire clearly is.

“All those four titles are thanks to Pat Hogan. He’s been with me since the very first day I started winning. His training is so good that it’s very easy to buy into it, so we enjoy it, it’s also good fun. He does it all voluntary, and you’ll never come across anyone more passionate about it.”

Although still eligible for the track and field championships in June, Mulcaire reckons this might have marked the end of his schoolboy career: last summer he broke the 40-year-old Irish junior 5,000m record belonging to John Treacy by running 14:02.30, and is targeting bigger prizes on the track this summer, including a World Championships.

After that he’ll likely continue his career on scholarship in America: “Almost definitely. I haven’t been offered anything here that would make me want to stay. Maybe if that offer came I’d think about it. But I think you’d be a bit foolish not to go to America at this stage.”

It’s the decision many Irish schools’ champions must make: winning the senior girls race was Eimear Fitzpatrick from Our Ladies Terenure, using her astute race tactics to hold off off Niamh Ní Chiardha from Coláiste Íosagáin, although they were both given the same time.

Fitzpatrick may decide to follow in the footsteps of her father, Enda the former Irish 1,500m champion, who declined the American scholarship path in his day.

Others have a few years to think about that decision, including the wonderfully gifted Saoirse O’Brien from Sacred Heart, Westport, who won the junior girls’ race with the sort of casual swagger reminiscent of Sonia O’Sullivan (who herself was present on the day). Another former champion Catherina McKiernan was also to witness her daughter Dearbhile finish seventh in that same race.

Next generation

There were hints of the next generation in the race just before that too when Aimee McKenna from St Mac Dara’s in Dublin win the minor girls’ race ahead of Meghan Carr of Loreto, Fermoy, daughter of 2013 World Champion walker Rob Heffernan.

Louis O'Loughlin Moyle Park College was another outstanding winner in the junior boys' race, although sometimes the brave fell on their own sword: Darragh McElhinney from Coláiste Phobail Bheanntraí attempted to blow away his rivals in the intermediate boys' race, charging away at the gun, only to fall short of the finish, ending up ninth, with Adam Fitzpatrick, of Kieran's, running a more measured race to take the title.