Comeback kid Kelly captures first national title

ATHLETICS NATIONAL CROSS COUNTRY CHAMPIONSHIPS: F SCOTT FITZGERALD liked to think there were no second acts in life, no comebacks.

Yet he hadn’t reckoned on sport – and probably would have struggled himself to describe the look on Keith Kelly’s face as he won the National Senior Cross Country title in Santry yesterday.

There was elation, obviously, but also pain, relief and a hint of anger. Only Kelly truly knows what he’s been through over the past eight years. We just know he’s been through a lot: fractured bones and twisted knees; crippled back and a hernia; and, more recently, redundancy.

Only a man of Kelly’s character could have pulled through. Truth is, Kelly had retired last year, but with the European Cross Country coming to the same Santry course in December, he was tempted to give his running one more lash. At 31, this was his comeback, boys, and perhaps only the start of it.

“I was hurting from halfway, big time,” said the hugely popular Drogheda athlete. “But there was something inside. When you go through so many injury problems, you actually get angry. I was saying, ‘I can’t let that beat me’. Despite the pain, you just keep going. Next tree. Next corner.”

Kelly had gone on the B of the Bang – charging to the front and setting the pace practically throughout. That was the only way he could run. His left knee had flared up badly during the week, and after resting three days, it had to be an all-or-nothing effort.

Only Mark Kenneally of home club Clonliffe Harriers could go with him, but, after a classic cross country duel, it was Kelly who prevailed, his decisive surge coming with three laps remaining.

There were only three seconds to spare in the end – but that was a lifetime for Kelly, who’s last notable victory in cross country was winning the American Collegiate NCAA title nine years ago.

“This is possibly the sweetest,” he added. “It’s different to the NCAAs. This makes me feel so young again. It’s my first senior cross country race, at 31. I spoke during the week with Ray Treacy (his coach) and we realised how important it was to race. So I decided to toe the line, give it Dixie from the gun, and go really hard. Forget about the pain in my knee, and focus on the pain of the race.

“Mark made it very tough, but I felt when he was leading for a bit, he was growing in confidence. I felt if I passed him again that would mentally get to him. So I put in a big move, with three laps to go. Even though it was hurting.”

Kelly today returns to his training base at Providence, Rhode Island, with the focus now on the European Cross Country in December. But to cap off a remarkable comeback, he’ll also return to work, as three days ago Reebok offered him his job back.

“It’s a promotion actually,” he said with a smile. “They were restructuring and that’s why I lost my job. Then they realised I was someone they didn’t need to get rid off. I don’t know how that worked.”

Credit must go to Kenneally, who never gave up the chase and helped Clonliffe to the team title, while former champion Vinny Mulvey also ran well to finish third.

The senior women’s race was a comeback of different sorts for Maria McCambridge. After winning the title for Dundrum four years ago, McCambridge was running for Letterkenny, home of her husband and coach, Gary Crossan, and her victory was all the more convincing in that it came in the thick of preparations for the Paris Marathon in five weeks.

Dundrum’s Linda Byrne chased for about a lap before McCambridge turned it into a long soliloquy. She won by a minute and eight seconds – and rarely has any athlete looked such a class apart in these championships.

“I have been training so hard, trying to step it up for the marathon,” she said. In fact she’d run 100 miles in training this week, yet looked fresh as a daisy at the finish.

There was some consolation for Byrne in leading Dundrum to the team title, while the Ffrench-O’Carroll twins, Charlotte and Rebecca, went one-two for Dundrum in the junior women’s race, with Dundrum also collecting that team title.

Although a year into their studies at UCD, the twins are considering transferring to Providence to further their athletic ambitions.