The Ward, Saturday November 30th – There was a healthy Sportsworld turnout at the NSRT/SMART BHAA XC held on farmland just off the N2 on Dublin’s northside. Beneath tremendously cold conditions and a thick fog lay an enterprising farmer that had built a fine indoor astro park facility on his land that could hold full sized football matches. After registration we jogged around the course, which consisted of land that had maize harvested recently; and the ground was very soft due to both heavy rainfall and the fact that some of the land had been recently ploughed. From mid morning, a crowd of people including volunteers, photographers, journalists and on lookers had assembled at the drama point of the course – an almost waist high stream that had to be briefly waded through en route to completing the course. The river wasn’t as bad as one’s mind could lead it to imagine – what was a bigger test was the short steep hill up the valley straight after it when your momentum had been absorbed by the river. If anything it served as a well needed wash along the way! This clip from last year will give you an idea: Onto the action, and 24 competitors toed the line for the girls race (4k), won by the brilliant Raheny based Pole Patrycia Wlodarczyk. Our own girls didn’t disappoint either, with Helen battling through the thick mud and fog for a podium finish; and Stephanie finishing a magnificent 4th. For the men’s race, the sluice gate was opened to allow a greater volume of water to enter the stream (which before that was below knee height). The 6k race of 130 men was won by one [...]
Dublin Intermediate Cross Country 2009
Sportsworld Delay Cross Country Start – Again! Reports of an ark being constructed on the grounds of Aras an Uachtaran, presumably to evacuate the President and selected residents of the zoo, have not been confirmed. However Met Eireann have confirmed that if water levels rise any further Ireland will be transformed into an amusing archipelago of Lugnocoille, Croagh Patrick, Carrauntoohil etc. Awaking to the, now, all too familiar sound of rain drumming against the window I was relieved not to hear water flowing around my bed. Wrapping the duvet tightly about me I pondered what was in store and secretly hoped that today’s Dublin Intermediate Cross Country Championships would be called off. Alas, it takes more then a flood of biblical proportions to stop a Dublin Athletics Board Cross Country Race. Arriving with Mike Cunningham at Tymon shortly after 1pm, it didn’t bode well to find the Children of Lir resting on a lake formed at a bend in the course. Paul Duffy and Ronan Merrick trotted up to tell us that we had 10mins before the mens race so with an air of controlled panic we made a bit of a dash down to the start. The great advantage of being late is you don’t need to bother about warming up and you don’t have to keep going to the toilet. One by one the rest of the mens team, Gareth Murran, Trevor McSweeney and Colm Kennedy arrived – with minutes to spare. Unfortunately, due to our lateness, we missed the ladies race. I did bump in to Ciara, Helen and Louise, and I know that Ruth had another very strong run – well done to all on what must have been ‘Character Building’! [...]
Intercounties Cross Country
The AAI Intercounties Cross Country National Championships took place in Kilbeggan racecourse on Sunday November 22nd. Muddy underfoot conditions, strong winds and rain left a very testing course for all athletes involved. First up was the Senior ladies 8km event where Sportsworld had two representatives, Lucy D’arcy and Crona Brady. With both the Junior and Senior races acting as a trial for the forthcoming European cross country championships in Santry, the fields assembled included Ireland’s best. Lucy ran a perfectly even paced race to take 22nd position in a time of 31.12. Lucy has clearly recovered from her marathon exploits and her fine run in the Masters International last weekend in Birmingham. Crona, in her debut national senior cross country race, continued her fantastic form this season running strongly throughout finishing just behind Lucy in 27th place (31.27). Along with Sarah Treacy (5th) and Fiona Mahon (12th), both Lucy and Crona won silver team medals with the Meath team that finished behind Dublin. Well done girls. Also a big thanks to Packie and Myles for their support and encouragement on the day. Photos from Racepix365 available here. Report ByAoife Brady
Meet & Train Round 2 Tymon Park
Meet & Train 09/10 Photos The second Women’s Meet and Train Cross Country race of the season was held on Sunday, November 22 at Tymon Park. Although, thankfully, the rain held off for the race, the wind certainly didn’t and that combined with the effects of a week of torrential downpour didn’t make for great running conditions – ladies don’t forget to wash your spikes after this one! Despite the wind and mud there was a great showing and the race was very well organized. Kudos to all the Sportsworld stewards and supporters who cheered and steered everyone through the course – and also to those who provided much appreciated refreshments afterwards! It was a great day for Sportsworld with 4 finishers in the top 5. Edel Madigan scored another first place leading the field from very early on. Ruth Kelly came in second – an outstanding performance in her first ever cross country race. Louise Nolan followed in third and Mairead O’Callaghan in fifth. Congratulations to all who finished the race and looking forward to the next race of the series in January! Report By Mairead O’Callaghan
British & Irish Masters Cross Country
British & Irish Masters Cross Country held in Perry park, Birmingham Saturday 14th November 2009. Wow, the 2nd international in 6 days! Saturday morning 9:30am, cold, wet (but not raining at the moment) & not too windy, not a bad 1st impression of the day ahead, oh but were we in for a treat. The coach arrived to bring us off to Perry Park, a short 30mins from the hotel, nobody was in a hurry to get off the bus when we arrived, way too cold, and the races weren’t starting until 12pm, sure what’s the rush. The time whizzed by, a few team photos and a few sloshy warm-up laps later and it was time for the off. Mean-while the wind had rapidly picked up & it got a lot colder, time to get the trackies off, 6 tough kms ahead of us, no going back now. Cold but dry we were on the start line, gun goes off and so do we, head-long into the wind, round 1 corner, round another and up along the trees, if your feet weren’t wet before the race they sure were now, along the water-logged tree-lined stretch but in our favour the strong wind was behind us at this point (but that didn’t last long), up a short, sharp, muddy hill to head off around the lake on a carpet of leaves, nice (on the 1st lap anyway), through another bit of muck, up another longer hill, this time into the wind, across the top and a slippy downhill followed by a sharp right hand bend, along some more trees followed by a decent downhill stretch only to be hit with a savage uphill climb into the [...]