Griggs among large NI contingent at Euro Cross Country

The precociously talented Nick Griggs will have another crack at European Cross Country Championship glory on Sunday but he will be far from the only Northern Ireland athlete in action in Turkey.

Remarkably, a third of the 36-strong Ireland team selected for the Antalya tests have Northern Ireland/Ulster roots.

All bar Strabane-based national senior women's champion from three weeks ago Ann-Marie McGlynn will be competing in the under-20 and under-23 races in the resort city which is an encouraging stat for the future.

It's going to be a particularly exciting weekend for ex-Irish international Paddy McGrath with son Frank competing in the men's under-20 event and given that he also coaches women's under-20 team member Eva Bartlett, who like Frank is English-based but attached to the Lagan Valley club in Belfast.

"I’ve lived in England for nearly 40 years but I’m still a home boy," Belfastman Paddy told BBC Sport Northern Ireland.

"I knew Frank would make an Ireland team one day but this year has been massive for him. It’s a big deal for our whole family."

McGrath's impeccable running genes

Frank's mother, health journalist and regular Athletics Weekly contributor Peta Bee, is also an athletics coach so the 19-year-old has impeccable running genes.

And with him now firmly back on track in his athletics after moving to St Mary's University in Teddington following a college stint in the USA which didn't work out, Paddy has high hopes for his son's running future.

"Frank is going to be a very good runner. He just needed to get the right environment and they have fantastic running facilities and with Mick Woods doing a brilliant job with his coaching there as well."

Young Frank will need to go some to match his dad's range as McGrath senior's career marks extended from running a 4:01 mile to a 64-minute half marathon as well as winning a Northern Ireland Cross Country title (1988) in the era when that was a hugely competitive event.

McGrath will be joined in the Ireland men's under-20 team by UCD-based talent Lughaidh Mallon, now being coached by Mark Kirk after being guided in the early part of his career by the highly-regarded Jim McKeown at his home Lagan Valley club.

The women's under-20 team includes East Down athlete Anna Gardiner, now under the tutelage of renowned Providence College running guru Ray Treacy after becoming the latest in a long line of Irish athletes to earn scholarships to the US university.

Gardiner, whose East Down coach is Peter Morgan, is joined in the women's under-20 team by Willowfield Harriers' Lucy Foster and Enniskillen Running Club's Annabel Morrison who occupied the two top places at the recent Irish Cross Country Championships in county Fermanagh.

Foster is one of a number of talented running siblings coached at Willowfield by their father Davy while Tommy Farrell guided Morrison to her qualification for this weekend's Irish team.

Former Great Britain 800m international Kirk coaches the three Candour club athletes competing at under-23 level as Griggs and training partner Callum Morgan go in the men's event and previous North Belfast athlete Roise Roberts competes in the women's under-23 race.

After looking set to battle for gold with eventual winner Keelan Kilrehill in the senior race at the Irish tests, Griggs, 19, slipped back to finish seventh.

However, the Tyrone lad's ability to bounce from occasional disappointment has been a feature of his young career so it wouldn't be a surprise to see him challenge for another European Cross County individual medal after finishing second and third in the under-20 races over the past two years.

The Ulster contingent in Ireland's under-23 selections are rounded off by Finn Valley's Amy Greene, North Belfast Harriers' Matthew Lavery.

Cross country specialist Lavery has been coached since his early teenage years by Jim McGuinness, who still holds the Northern Ireland mile record by dint of the famous 3:55.00 he ran in July 1977, which left seventh in the world rankings that year.

"Matthew loves the cross country. He is a pure product of Jimmy’s training. Loves all that hard effort," said McGuinness' fellow North Belfast coach Seamus McCann.

'There are a lot of good coaches'

Overall, McCann believes that the current run of success for talented young Northern Ireland and Ulster athlete demonstrates the coaching quality on the local scene.

"There’s a good coaching structure locally and there are a lot of good coaches," added former Northern Ireland and Ireland international McCann, who broke the four-minute barrier for the mile in 1988.

"Lughaidh Mallon……he was coached by Jim McKeown at Lagan Valley who knew what he was doing. You have good coaches at Willowfield and East Down and good athletes who have moved between those clubs.

"Paddy McGrath was formerly coached by Jim McGuinness so you can see the linkage. And these coaches have been around for a long time.

"Some of the athletes may move from one group to the next group but they are still within the same pool of coaches and are repeating the benefits of that knowledge."

NORTHERN IRELAND/ULSTER ATHLETICS IN IRELAND TEAM

Senior women

Ann-Marie McGlynn (Letterkenny AC)

U23 men

Nick Griggs (Candour)

Matthew Lavery (North Belfast Harriers)

Callum Morgan (Candour)

U23 women

Amy Greene (Finn Valley)

Roise Roberts (Candour)

U20 men

Frank McGrath (Lagan Valley)

Lughaidh Mallon (UCD)

U20 women

Lucy Foster (Willowfield Harriers)

Annabel Morrison (Enniskillen Running Club)

Eva Bartlett (Lagan Valley)

Anna Gardiner (East Down)