JARLATH McKenna is today celebrating victory at the British Masters Cross Country Championships.
The Bristol & West AC runner, who now works and lives in Newcastle, won the over 40s title at Wallsend, also close by in the North East.
To be honest McKenna didn’t just win the race; he destroyed the opposition in his age group by finishing 1min 31secs clear of runner-up Grant Baillie of East Kilbridge and also beat all the M35 runners!
That sort of winning margin in an event of this quality is unprecedented and will be one of the biggest – if not the biggest – winning margins in the history of the race.
Indeed, Steve Smythe of Athletics Weekly wrote in his report:
‘The manner of the victories of newcomers Jarlath McKenna and Juliet Potter (suggests) this could also be the first of many titles for two performers who both did well in senior competition just a week earlier.’
As an illustration of just how fit you need to be to lift the British Masters title McKenna finished 66th at the English ‘National’ Championships just last month and made the scoring team for B&W while just a week ago, representing the North East, he was 29th at the Inter-Counties.