Hugh sticks the heat to make the ‘grade
Ireland’s Hugh Armstrong in action in the senior men's race at Saturday's 2024 World Athletics Cross Country Championships in Belgrade. Picture: INPHO/Nikola Krstic
An assured display in very challenging conditions saw Mayo’s Hugh Armstrong finish in 50th position in the senior men’s race at Saturday’s World Cross Country Championships in Belgrade.
The temperature in the Serbian capital was an unseasonably high 27 degrees which offered quite the contrast to what Armstrong, a member of Ballina AC, and Moy Valley AC’s Keelan Kilrehill, who was competing in the same event, were used to in preparing for their world cross country senior debut.
The event was held in Belgrade’s Friendship Park and with conditions fast underfoot, 29-year-old Armstrong ran clever, moving up the positions in the second-half of the 10k to finish best of the Irish and in the top half of the field. Kilrehill wasn’t far behind either, crossing the line in 56th position.
Their race was won by defending champion Jacob Kiplimo from Uganda, on a day where East African athletes dominated all of the different races.
Another Moy Valley AC runner featured in the women’s under-20s race, with Kirsty Maher, who is from the UK but with very strong Mayo connections, finishing in 39th place, two places behind the best Irish finisher, Anna Gardiner from East Down AC.
