Nick Griggs warms up for World’s with Irish title win

NICK Griggs cemented his place as the top young middle distance runner in Ireland on Sunday when he eased to the national under-20 3,000 metres title one year to the day from he won the European crown.

The Newmills teenager took the race in his stride, making his break for glory at the start of the last lap before easing down to coast home over the final 100 metres in a time of 8.17:24 minutes to win by almost eight seconds from Jack Fenlon, with Griggs’ training partner Callum Morgan third, a further two and a half seconds back.

For Griggs, the result was the ideal fillip ahead of his trip to Columbia for the World Championships when he is hoping to make his mark in the same event against Africa’s best.

“The whole plan was to go out and sit on the leaders,” he explained. “There was no need for me to do any more than I did and the plan was for me to make the move when I felt comfortable.

“There probably wasn’t any need for me to go as early as I did but I decided to get away with 400, get a comfortable lead and then I could slow right down over the last 100 because there was no need for me to use any more energy than I had.”

The victory cemented his place at the World Championships in Columbia, where he will travel today (Wednesday). And it’s an experience the 17-year-old Cookstown High School head boy is relishing.

Griggs will have some familiar company in the 3000 metres in Cali in the shape of training partner Morgan who he runs with regularly under the guidance of coach, Mark Kirk.

“I’m buzzing, it will be unbelievable. I actually can’t wait,” he exclaimed. “It will be a huge achievement for Mark to have two World finalists in the same event so it will be cool to line up alongside him in a World final. It will be a change to lining up at the Mary Peters Track!

“Having him in the race will help me relax. Going into the race you can say ‘me and him are there, it’s not that big a deal’. Just dumb it down in your head, think of it like an ordinary race.

“It will definitely help to have him there, someone close to spur each other on.”