ATHLETICS INTERCLUBS CROSS COUNTRYTHE FIRST runner-up described what he did as "disgusting"; the second runner-up refused to shake his hand, saying, "You can't trust someone like that." And this was only part of the response to Cathal Lombard's winning of the National Interclubs cross country title.
Among the traditions of the race is the roar of admiration that greets champions in their moment of triumph - which is always genuine, and always justified given the sacredness of this title. Yet Lombard's moment in Belfast on Saturday was greeted with a death-like silence, the sombre eyes of Irish athletics supporters not quite believing what they were seeing, or simply not wanting to believe.
Among them were several great champions of the past: Séamus Power, Jerry Kiernan, Derek Graham, Tom O'Riordan. Power's face, in particular, was a sorry mix of disbelief and disappointment.
Dick Hooper, the famous marathoner and Raheny devotee, was wandering about with the look of a man who had just had his heart torn out. "That's a disaster for Irish athletics," he said.
This is what happens when a self-confessed drug cheat returns to the sport. Lombard, following a few months of dramatic improvement, tested positive for the endurance-boosting drug erythropoietin (EPO) just prior to the 2004 Athens Olympics. Once busted, he admitted using EPO, and was given the automatic two-year ban.
Now aged 32, and his sentence served, Lombard had been spotted in a couple of minor races in recent months; he finished second in the Cork cross-country in November. Yet few anticipated such an all-conquering run on Saturday, when he raced away from the pre-race favourite, Alistair Cragg, with remarkable ease and won by eight seconds. It was his first Interclubs title.
"I'm delighted, it's a great feeling to win," he told the race announcer next to the medal podium. "I always run good on a tough course, and over the mud I'm as tough as anyone out there."
As if on cue, Lombard was then led away for a drug test.
We followed with some more searching questions: When was he last drug tested? How does he feel about his return to the sport?
"I don't want to talk about that."
But what do you have to say about your past, and that you've served your two-year ban?
"Nothing to say."
No apology, no apparent remorse. No wonder the Corkman had run in near silence; spectators at the Queen's University playing fields kept hands in pockets as he passed before promptly removing them to applaud Cragg, who was leading the chase. Cragg closed on the last of the six laps, but his chase ended in vain - though he did lead Clonliffe to the team title.
Clearly the mud hadn't suited Cragg, though he had not arrived from his US base to finish second.
He didn't want to sound like a sore loser, but he did want to make his feelings known about athletes who return from drug bans.
"I don't condone what he did. It was pretty disgusting . . . I'm surprised people took him in. He shouldn't get away with something like that. I think it's really unfair a guy can do what he did and only get that long off the sport. That's the rules of the IAAF, but to me, if a guy decides to takes that route in life, he should never be allowed to get back to what he does. A guy with a criminal record . . . doesn't get a job like a guy without one."
Cragg then appeared to suggest that Lombard might still be benefiting from his previous EPO use: "Whatever he did, he still has the same body that took him there. He's obviously known he's taken his body to another level and wants to get back there. And whatever he feels, as person, to get there, that's his choice. If he won today and he knows he didn't win it fairly then that's his problem.
"Do I believe he's clean now? I have no idea. It's not for me to say . . . He beat me fair and square today. But if he tests positive again I'll have something to say."
Vinny Mulvey from Raheny, the 2006 champion, finished in third, 24 seconds adrift of Lombard, and purposely refused to shake his hand on the medal podium.
"I have respect for everyone, but not him," said Mulvey. "My view is if you get done for drugs you should be done for life. Some people will say it's water under the bridge now, but you can't trust someone like that."
Cragg and Mulvey will run the World Cross Country in Edinburgh later this month as automatic qualifiers, but Lombard has declined selection, saying he'd be "too busy" with business interests.
However, it still seems likely he will run the Rotterdam marathon on April 13th with a view to Olympic qualification - and if he achieves that, the debate over his return will be further inflamed.
Also unfortunate about Lombard's win on Saturday was how it overshadowed the three other races, particularly for the senior women's champion, Fionnuala Britton of Wicklow.
In one of the greatest individual runs in the long history of the race, Britton (23) retained her title by a massive 55 seconds.
Maria McCambridge and Linda Byrne, both of Dundrum, finished second and third.
Dundrum did provide the winner of the junior women's title, Charlotte Ffrench-O'Carroll finishing 11 seconds clear of her twin, Rebecca, while Michael Mulhare of North Laois ran with great courage to hold off Craig Murphy of Togher for the junior men's title.
