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 [...]
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’! [...]
Leinster Intermediate Cross Country 2009
Sunday 8th November saw the Leinster Intermediate Cross Country hosted by Tullamore Harriers in Tullamore, County Offaly. Sportsworld were represented in the men’s race. Some of us were led to believe that we were running an 8km race, but we were taken back when we reached the field to be informed it was 10km made up of 5 laps. Hoping that underfoot conditions might be ok, we weren’t long finding out that the course was flooded in one corner and the rest was the near resemblance of a field vacated after the national ploughing championships with 3 hills to tackle 5 times thrown in to make it more enjoyable. The race took off at a steady pace led by eventual winner Tom Hogan of Slaney Olympic. Sportsworld were led out by the excellent Micheal Cunningham, Paul Duffy and Ronan Merrick, followed closely by Mark Dunne, Paul Mitchell and Liam Mc Fadden. Lap one was the greatest test for all, seeing was it safer to take a 30 metre detour to avoid the small lake in the bottom corner of the course or dive straight in and hope to make it out the other side with spikes still on. Gladly we all took the dive and made it trough. After that it was a case of settling in and trying to make moves on the leader board. Sportsworld were unlucky not to come away with a team bronze medal for all their hard effort eventually finishing 4th placed team. Overall Results1 Tom Hogan 34.20 (Slaney Olympic)18 Michael Cunningham 38.1924 Paul Duffy 38.5027 Ronan Merrick 39.1030 Paul Mitchell 40.1532 Mark Dunne 40.3340 Liam Mc Fadden 42.21 Report byLiam Mc Fadden recovering from ‘trench foot’ has supplied this [...]
National Intermediate Cross Country 2008
Classy Runner Within the last 2 weeks Aoife Brady has proved to be a fantastic all-round athlete. First of on 8th February 2009. We had the Irish Indoor championships. Aoife ran in the 1500m but unfortunately just missed out on the medals and finish in fourth place. The following day Aoife ran the 3,000m and collected a Bronze medal. This is Sportsworld first indoor track medal and we are very proud of Aoife. The following week we all headed over to Tymon Park for the Cross County Championships. Aoife continued to put in a brilliant preformance when running the Intermediate 4,000m. Aoife took an early lead, she held the lead and finish very stongly winning herself a gold medal for individual section. Well Done Aoife. Also in the Indoors we had Crona Brady who ran in the 800m and finish in a great time of 2.25.42. Well done Crona. Crona has improved greatly this year and seems to be following in her sister footsteps. So watch out for this name ha. Sportsworld had a fantastic day out in Tymon park bringing medals home left right and centre. Check out the results below. Woodies DIY Cross County Championships 15/02/09 Master Men 7,000mCharlie O’Connell had a great run and finished in at time of 41.57. Intermediate MenEd McEntee 44th place time of 36.03,Ronan Merrick 47th 36.06,Paul Duffy 57th place time 36.53,Michael Cunningham 72th place time 37.40, Kieran Lynch 87th place time of 38.59, Paul Mitchell place 97th time of 40.33. This race was highly competitive with the winner Sean Hehir Rathfarnham in a time of 32.14. Master Women 4,000mLucy Darcy 7th place time of 15.27, Rachel Morgan place 9th time of 15.40, Helen White place 25th time [...]
Leinster Intermediate CC 2008
Leinster Intermediate – 9th November 2008 November 9th saw the annual meeting of the Leinster Intermediate CC Races, which was held in a mud bath at Heywood College Abbeyleix Co. Laois. We knew that it was going to be a tough day from the start, when the parking man stop us at the gate saying ‘I think lads ya may park here, the auld field up above is gone soft’, and can I have 5 Euro each as well!. Well the parking man wasn’t lying, the course didn’t have a blade of grass which makes the performance of our Ladies team remarkable. The Girls team brought home the first gold of the cross country season. Well done to Aoife & Crona Brady, Stephney Bergan & Lisa Dowling. Aoife season is going from strength to strength & she took 1st place to boot. Even at that the twins weren’t finished clearing the place out of medals. They also picked up Gold for Meath in the county competition. The lads were up next and they had the pleasure of 5 laps in the cold icy blustery conditions. But what else would you be doing on your Sundays, I even heard one of the lads saying the harder the better. But I’m soft & I taught that its was a day beside the fire. Despite the Conditions Ronan Merrick & Ed McEntee battled on to claim 11th & 16th overall. Next in Micky Cunningham marched in 24th spot. Paul Mitchell, James Shanahan. Will & Paul Duffy also had a go & the team as a whole just missed out on a bronze medal. However lads our day will come again. Race report by Paul Duffy.