Fiona Everard races to top ten finish in London

Bandon athlete Laura Nicholson runs two PBs in America

BY JOHN WALSHE

THERE was another solid performance by Bandon athlete Fiona Everard on Saturday when she finished a credible tenth at the International Cross Challenge held at the famous Parliament Hill course in London.

In a race won by European bronze-medallist Abbie Donnelly, Everard – proudly wearing her Bandon colours – was well placed throughout and finished strongly to claim tenth spot, one place ahead of her Irish colleague Danielle Donegan from Tullamore.

The race doubled as the British trials for the World Cross-Country and on this occasion the distance was 10km, a kilometre longer than Everard had to contend with when winning the Irish title at Kilkenny back in November and when competing at the European Cross-Country the following month.

The Bandon athlete’s time of 35:29 was 57 seconds behind the winner and it's interesting to note that Donnelly achieved a 10km best of 31:59 at Valencia six days before. Therefore, this augurs well for Everard’s debut over that distance on the road which will probably be at the Trafford 10km in early March.

Another Bandon athlete in the news is Laura Nicholson, who is on an athletics scholarship at  the University of Toledo in Ohio. Just over a week ago, she was named Women's Track Athlete of the Week by the Mid-American Conference. Nicholson turned out two huge personal-best times to lead the Toledo women's team at Michigan's Wolverine Invitational.

In her first indoor meet in the Midnight Blue and Gold uniform, Nicholson won the mile with a personal best time of 4:41.74, which ranks fourth all-time for UT. She also finished seventh in the 800m in a time of 2:12.06, which ranks sixth in UT's history. Nicholson's mile and 800m times rank second and seventh, respectively, in the NCAA Great Lakes Region.

Meanwhile, at the 123.ie Athletics Ireland Junior and U23 Indoor Championships at the TUS International Arena in Athlone over the weekend, three more Bandon athletes were amongst the medals. Lauren McCourt was second in the U23 400m, one-hundred of a second behind winner Katie O’Connell from Lucan. McCourt’s time of 55.72 was just outside her indoor best of 55.60 from last year. Ella Collins finished third in the U20 1500m with her time of 4:57.25 while in the same age-group Aoife Tuthill picked up another bronze when finishing third in the 3000m walk in 15:28.07.