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Catherina
McKiernan, a native of Drumkeeran, Cornafean, is one of the world’s leading
female athletes in the marathon and cross-country disciplines.
Among the many milestones in her career to date include famous victories in the London, Amsterdam and Berlin Marathons and four silver medals, in successive years, in the World Cross Country Championship.
As a teenager Catherina's starred for several years with Cornafean camogie teams and before marking her mark in the world of athletics. In September 1986 she started running competitively with Cornafean Athletic Club, and two months later won the Ulster cross-country 3,000 metres.Her special talent in cross-country was immediately obvious and she turned to local coach Joe Doonan, from Carrigallen, for guidance. Joe has continued to be her coach ever since then.
Catherina won her first National title in 1988 when she took gold in the Irish Schools Cross-country Championship. On finishing school, she turned down the offer of an American university scholarship and chose instead to continue her athletic career at home. She completed a secretarial course and began working as a receptionist, all the time maintaining her hectic training schedule of the grounds of Cavan Golf Course and Cornafean GAA pitch. She took up employment with Cavan County Council in 1990 and remained there until she took leave of absence to concentrate full-time on athletics in 1994.
In 1989, Catherina won a bronze medal in the National Cross-country Championships in Killenaule, Co. Tipperary and this earned her a place on the Irish squad for the World Cross-country Championships in Stavanger, Norway. She continued to make slow but steady progress in the World Cross-country circuit and in December 1991 she won her first IAAF Grand Prix event, when she defeated a strong field in Bolbec, France. Later that month, she repeated this feat in Mol, Belgium, and in early January she won again in Mallusk, Belfast in front of many of her supporters from Cornafean.
Catherina now led the IAAF World Cross-country Challenge rankings and started preparing for the World Championships in Boston. Along with her coach Joe Doonan, and her brother Peadar, who was now also looking after her sponsorship and finances, she prepared meticulously for the Boston event. She travelled to Boston a week before the race and trained with the Irish athlete John Treacy, who had two 2 World Cross-country championships in the late 1970's. The race itself was a triumph for Catherina. No-one in Cornafean will ever forget her determined run in difficult, snowy conditions when she shocked a world-class field to achieve second place in a dramatic finale behind the experienced US athlete Lynn Jennings. She returned to Ireland to a rapturous welcome, with crowds gathering in unprecedented numbers in McSeains in Cornafean to greet her and salute her success.
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On the winners' podium in Mallusk |
In Summer 1992, Catherina made her Olympic debut when she competed in the 3,000m event in the Barcelona Games. Later that year, she was back on the Cross-country circuit, winning in Mol, Mallusk and Seville before travelling to Amorbieta, a suburb of Bilbao in Northern Spain, for the World Championships. The race was run in conditions totally different than a year earlier in Boston - a flat lush and fast course on a damp and misty Sunday morning. Early in the race, a group of four leaders, including Catherina, broke away from the rest of the field. By the 5,000m mark, Portugal's Albertina Dias had assumed a commanding lead and went on to take gold. Catherina fought off a challenge from Lynn Jennings, her conqueror in Boston a year earlier, to take the silver medal.
That Summer, Catherina returned to the track when she took part in the World Athetics Championships in Stuttgart, Germany. She qualified from her heat, but was forced to drop out of the final before the race ended, due to blistering on her feet. She recovered quickly from the disappointment of Stuttgart when she defeated the reigning champion Dias in the IAAF cross-country event in Bolbec. Beaten into second place by Paula Radcliffe in Mallusk in January 1994, she bounced back with wins in Seville and the Algarve.
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Catherina with her coach Joe Doonan in Cornafean after the 1994 World Championships |
Budapest in Hungary was the scene for the 1994 World Cross-country Championships. The race belonged to Kenya's Helen Chepngeno, who led from start to finish. Catherina ran cautiously at first, avoiding the initial congestion before moving through the field, calmly passing her competitors one-by-one. Catherina was still in fourth place as the finishing line beckoned but the Cornafean woman produced a remarkable spring to leave Dias and her Portuguese counterpart, Ferreira, trailing and this was enough to win her another silver medal. Her win over Dias has also won Catherina the Grand Prix title for the third year in succession.
Catherina travelled to Albuquerque in New Mexico for a programme of altitude training in preparation for the 1994 track season. She returned in fine form, winning a silver in Seville, fifth place in Nice and gold in the Europa Cup 10,000m in Dublin, before that year's European Championships in Helsinki. Helsinki turned out to be a big disappointment for Catherina as the some unexpected side-effects of the the altitude training badly hampered her performance. Two weeks later, she bounced back with a bronze medal in the Berlin Grand Prix.
The 1994 Grand Prix Final in Paris was the first time in five years that Catherina competed against Sonia O'Sullivan. It was a remarkable sight to see the two Irish women in the lead with 1,000 metres to go, and for a while it looked as if Catherina was to cause an upset. However, both Irish athletes were caught by Borischova of Russia and Britain's Alison Wyeth. In the end, Catherina finished a very credible fourth, with Sonia just ahead of her.
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Victory in Northumbria |
The grounds of Alnwick Castle in Northumbria was the scene of Catherina's next major success, in the inaugural European Cross-country Championships in December 1994. The ground conditions here were extremely tough, and the unusually short length of the course was not to Catherina's liking. However, she ran a brilliant race, ignoring the fast early pace set by Portugal's Ribeiro before moving into third place on the second lap and proceeding to overtake Ribeiro before challenging the new leader, Vaquero of Spain. Catherina's decisive burst of speed against a strong wind proved too much for the Spaniard and Catherina had two seconds to spare at the finish. The achievement of winning eventually gold in a major Cross-country Championship meant a lot to Catherina.
In February 1995, Catherina returned to Albequerque for her second stint of altitute training. This time the big prize was the World Cross-country Championships in Durham the following month. A large group from Cornafean, (including, for the first time, her father John) travelled to Geordie country to see her win her fourth silver medal in succession. Although her main rivals before the race were reckoned to be the Kenyans, it was the Ethiopian, Derartu Tulu, who stormed home to take gold. Catherina held on for second place and her four silvers in a row in this competition is surely a unique achievement.
After Durham, Catherina returned to the track in Lille, France in May where she produced a wonderful performance in the 10,000 metres, smashing her own Irish record and running the fastest time in the world in that distance so far that year. She seemed poised for success in the World Athetics Championships in Gothenburg but she sustained a foot injury in a race in Oslo just before the Gothenburg event and was sadly missed the World event as a result.
In Summer 1996, Catherina travelled to the Atlanta Olympics with high hopes, but was disappointed to finish 11th in the 10,000 metres. However, she was now on the verge of the greatest achievements of her career to date - in the marathon event.
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| Catherina celebrates her London win - 1998 |
Catherina's preparations for the marathon required a totally different course of preparation and commitment, from her previous training programmes for cross-country and track competition. Once again, Joe Doonan's expertise was invaluable. By now Catherina had moved to Dublin, where she trained in the grounds of Malahide Castle and in the Phoenix Park. This helped give her some much-needed variety in her training routines.
The Berlin Marathon in September 1997 was her debut at that distance. Her inexperience in the long-distance event counted for nothing as she produce an amazing performance to storm home to victory. Her time of 2 hours 23 minutes and 44 seconds, was an Irish record and the ninth fastest time ever for a woman in the Marathon. It was also a world record for a debutante to matathon running. She had over a minute to spare over second-placed Madina Biktagirova of Belarus in 2:24:46 with Marleen Renders of Belgium in third. In her next race, she won a half marathon in Lisbon, beating Scotland's Liz McColgan by two minutes.
The following spring she attracted world attention by winning gold in the prestigious London Marathon. In a commanding run, Catherina finished a full 180 yards ahead of her nearest rival, again Liz McColgan, and celebrated the biggest win of her career. Her time of two hours 26 minutes and 26 seconds was a little slower than in Berlin, but still the seventh fastest time for a woman. With just two miles to go, she was assailed by stomach cramps - but she drew on all her undoubted mental strength and held on to complete a remarkable victory.
Her parents and family were in London to watch her win - for her mother it was the first time she had ever seen her daughter race except on television. Immediately after the race, President Mary McAleese rang Catherina to congratulate her on the victory, which she described as a "fitting reward for the dedication and commitment you have shown over the years. "The people of Cavan and of Ulster, together with Irish people everywhere, will join in celebrating this significant occasion in your career."
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Taoiseach Bertie Ahern and the Fine Gael leader John Bruton were also quick to congratulate her. Later that year she won her third marathon race in a row in Amsterdam, and although hampered by injury a year later in Chicago, she produced a very creditable performance, finishing in 12th place. Last year she endured a major disappointment when she missed the Olympic Games in Sydney, because of a back injury. Catherina withdrew from the Irish Olympic squad after she decided that it would not be possible for her to be fully fit for the Games in September. During the summer, she had been unable to train in line with her planned training programme and this forced her to make the difficult decision to withdraw. However, she did travel to Sydney, as a commentator with RTE Sport. |
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| Heading for victory in Amsterdam |
Facing the media in Chicago |
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Catherina & Damien on their wedding day - 2000 |
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| Three of Catherina's greatest supporters, Peadar McSeain, Philip Miney and Philip Brady pictured at the Amsterdam Marathon |
A happier day for Catherina was to come on Saturday 25th November 2000, the day she was married to the well-known RTE radio presenter Damien O’Reilly in the Church of the Immaculate Conception, Coronea. The chief concelebrant of the Wedding Mass was Fr. John Phair and the other celebrants were Fr. Bouchier, Fr. McGoldrick and Fr. Gilcreest. The Bridesmaids were Catherina’s sisters Dympna, Eileen and Rose, while the Damien’s best man was his brother Kenneth. His groomsmen were his brother Pauric, and the RTE midlands correspondent Ciaran Mullooly. The 300 guests later celebrated the wedding at a reception in the Slieve Russell Hotel, where they later enjoyed a performance by the accomplished jazz musician, Paddy Cole and his band. The wedding attracted a great deal of attention from the national media, and was featured on the main RTE TV news bulletins on that evening.
