MacMahon shows way in Slovenia

Lindie Naughton

Clonliffe's Brian MacMahon lead home the Irish men in 38th place at the World Mountain Running Championships, held on an uphill only course at Kamnik in Slovenia.

McMahon and Barry Minnock of Rathfarnham ran the first five kilometres of the savage and almost vertical 12km course together.

Minnock, who at one stage was 60th, held on for 75th place closely followed by Pudsey and Bramley's John Heneghan in 77th. Rathfarnham's Peter O'Farrell, who had competed at the World Masters a week earlier, was fourth scorer in 106th.

Sharon Bird of North Belfast finished 40th in the women's 8km race, followed by Karen Alexander of Sperrin Harriers, who was 42nd. Making their debut at this level were DSD's Sarah Mulligan and Kate O'Neill of MSB.

Best in the junior 8km was DSD's Emmet Jennings 47th, followed by James Speight of Omagh Harriers and James Egan of DSD.

Niamh Denny of DSD was 29th in the junior women's race, backed up by Shercock's Catherina Mullen and Sinead Cronin of Celtic. Eritreans won both senior and junior men's races, while Turkey continued its domination of the junior women's race.

Austria's Andrea Mayr, who has a 2 hours 30 minutes marathon, won the women's senior race for a third time.

At the World Masters Mountain Running Championships in Korbielov, Poland, former world champion John Lenihan made his debut in this competition.

Lenihan, who turns 50 next year, finished 22nd overall and third of a strong Irish M45 team. Newcastle's Deon McNeilly was seventh, followed by Sean Foley from Waterford 11th.

In the M35 race, Rathfarnham's Peter O'Farrell finished seventh in 49.09.

Mayo's Robert Malseed was two minutes behind for ninth place, followed by Richie McCauley of Slí Cualann in 10th.

Des Kennedy finished 11th in the M40 class, followed by Slí Cualann's Cormac Conroy 12th and Leo Murray of Tir Chonaill 13th.

Clonliffe's Mags Greenan comfortably won the women's over-50 class for a third year. Finishing fourth was Majella Diskin, one of the pioneers of Irish mountain running.

Martin McDonald from North Laois finished 3rd M50 in 49.43, with Clonliffe's Gerry Brady 13th, orienteer Pat McCavana 23rd and Seamus Greenan 53rd. An amazing 16 men and one woman competed in the over-75 class.