Phoenix Park last Sunday March 7th held the National Cross Country Championships on a cold but gorgeous dry spring day, who said cross country was about muck and rain and hardship. The senior girls where up first hoping to get Sportsworld an earned Senior Team gold medal. However even with some brilliant performances and a strong team it was not meant to be and the girls have to be content this year with National Bronze medals. Without an unlucky broken toe the girls times and places would of guaranteed them a gold. On to the Mens race and it seemed strange doing the Munich lap in the sun having spent so many Saturday mornings running the lap in the rain and muck with only the thoughts of the Swiss deli afterwards keeping you going. But this was a slightly easier lap then we trained on but 6 continuous laps was keeping me awake at night and as usual the competition was fierce. This cross country season has seen a number of new guys coming out and doing the weekend training and travelling to the novice and intermediate races (not all making it to the final senior race) and it paid off with a very strong Sportsworld mens team running. Even though we had not trained in getting to the race start line on time the mens team got gold in Category B which now puts us up with the girls in Category A for next year. A big thanks to all the Sportsworld members who came out on Sunday, the cheers and shouts made a big difference. Race results http://www.athleticsireland.ie/content/?page_id=160
National Intermediate Cross Country 2010
Boyle, Sunday February 21st – The beautiful Lough Key Forest Park was the setting for the National Intermediate & Masters cross country at the weekend. We hired out a club bus and hit for Roscommon at 10 am. As we headed through the midlands, snow covered fields was the theme everywhere but thankfully there was none in the forest park. Weather wise things were perfect – dry and no wind. The course, with one steady uphill followed by its descent at the other side, was medium – heavy, and ploughed up at one corner in particular. With Emily collecting our numbers in the log cabin, we realised that the master’s women’s race was off in a half an hour, so quick action had to be taken. It was extremely competitive, with 100 girls crossing the finishing line within 5 minutes of each other, so averaging out at a woman every 3 seconds. Both Lucy (3rd in her age category) and Helen finished in the top 10 overall, and we got a decent display from all of our women. Judith narrowly missed out on an age category medal by less than 10 seconds. The best news was that we came away with team silver with Lucy, Helen, Aideen & Sandra scoring. Helen White helped Dublin to a silver medal. The team contest was won comfortably by a North Belfast Harriers side that are easily capable of medalling at senior level, indeed they were national senior champions in 2007 albeit with a stronger team on that occasion. They had all team members running in the top twenty five. While the intermediates was a race for younger (and in some cases faster) girls, it was understandably not as [...]
Leinster Senior Cross Country 2010
Leinster Senior Cross Country 2010 Kilmacow, Sunday February 14th – Distance runners are such a romantic race of people that (for some of them anyway) their ideal way of spending Valentine’s day involves a trip to south Kilkenny to run in the Leinster senior cross country, well away from where their partners can nag them. And how worthwhile a trip it was, as it turned out to be one of the most successful days in the club’s history. We passed through a deserted Ballyhale on the way down, as most of the parish would have been in Thurles to see their hurlers beat Newtownshandrum in the club semi finals. Kilmacow is only 4m from Waterford and is home to agriculturally some of the best land I’ve seen in a while. The St Senan’s sports complex is a great example of how when a rural community pulls together they can create something marvellous. There are a soccer club, GAA club, tug of war and athletics club all set up at the clubhouse. They have fantastic GAA and soccer pitches, a long jump straight, an improvised running track and miles of stoned or grassy trails through a forest or along the banks of a tributary of the Suir. All off little if any public funding I would imagine. We were greeted with gorgeous sunshine and a very firm course that didn’t cut up anywhere despite the amount of kiddies races preceding that of the adults. The course was 95 % flat across pitches and fields and there was one steep hill thrown in and a steep downhill at the opposite side of the course, both of which were no more than 10m long. Both hills were paved [...]
European Cross Country Championships 2009
Santry, Dublin 13th December 2009 Euro2009 Saturday 13th December 2009 had finally arrived. Irish running enthusiasts had the chance to have the great spectacle of the European Cross Country Championships in our own back yard -the Santry demesne, rather than on TV in our sitting rooms. The course that was graced with Merrick, Cunningham, Duffy et al. at the national inter-clubs only a few months ago, now hosted the cream of Europe’s running talent fighting it out for the big prize. A huge crowd turned out to watch the days events; consisting of Ladies and Mens Junior, U-23 and Senior races. The young Irish teams gave a great account of themselves, representing their country with great distinction. The Senior Ladies was dominated form start to finish by the relentless Liz Yelling. In a feat of great courage and confidence Liz blew the rest of the field away with an awesome display of front running. She powered around the course with mechanical efficiancy, her arms driving her along like pistons while the rest of the field struggled through the heavy mud. The strongly fancied Portugese athletes fought it out for the remaining places, but claimed the team prize as expected. The Irish challenge did not materialise as hoped. Fionnula Britton was first home with a highly creditable tenth place and return to form after a frustrating couple of years. Mary Cullen had high hopes here but could not find the big performance when she needed it the most. She started off towards the front before falling back after half way and looked to be struggling. Mary dug deep though and showed to work her way back up the field, eventually finish in twelfth place. She will [...]
National Novice Cross Country 2009
Sunday 6th December 2009, Coleraine It was a cold but at least dry day when Michael, Emily & Packie collected me in Swords for the long drive up north to Coleraine for this year’s National Novice XC. The last race of the year promised to be run in more favourable conditions than the Dublin Intermediate the previous week and hopefully Clann Lir would be absent from the course today. We got up to Coleraine in plenty of time and managed to find a pool table in the Students Union, which kept us occupied for a while. Paul Duffy continued his fine run of form on the pool table and when he got bored beating everyone, Packie took a turn giving us all a pool lesson. The team assembled, we made our way to the course to catch young Sean Wall (Waller) in action in the Under 19′s race. Waller had a great race and worked his way through a very competitive field. It was a tough race for him aswell as the U19′s had to run 6k, same as the novice. Next up was the girls (Stephanie, Lorna, Ruth, Susan and Helen) over 3k. Lorna Quinn (19th) came through very strongly and continued to show her fine running form. Ruth(27th) and Stephanie(28th) were next in, only a hare’s fart seperating them. Next up was Susan (45th) with Helen(56th) the final scorer. No medals today with fifth spot team place but Rathfarnam were seventh, so every silver cloud and all that… Next up was the lads. There had been some controversy surrounding the start of a lot of the junior races and our own start wasn’t the most clinical. No chutes and little warning but that’s [...]