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 [...]
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 [...]
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
National Half Marathon
At the weekend 8 Sportsworld members made the trek to Ballybofey, Co Donegal for the National Half Marathon and returned with one medal. Leaving on Saturday lunch time, we opted to use Letterkenny as a holding base and arrived there before 17.00. We rented 2 newly built celtic tiger style houses in the town centre in what proved to be much better, cheaper and comfortable than B&B’s or hotels as we had our own space. After receiving the keys from the landlady (to whom we assured that we weren’t a stag party, much the opposite in fact), one of the first things to be done was to get some shopping for food and supplies so we strolled down town. In the local mall we came across a Super Valu that was there 2 years ago but had somehow been replaced, and a rival sports chain store called Sports World; showing that there are alternatives to Ireland’s best sports shop. Then when we found a Dunnes Stores, there was much debate and disagreement as to what we should buy for the houses and what would be a sinful waste of money from the kitty we’d all chipped into. After unpacking we went downtown for dinner and to see the boys in green score a very lucky world cup qualifier win over Cyprus. On Sunday morning we drove to a drizzly & dreary Ballybofey (the home of one of Ireland’s all time greatest distance running clubs Finn Valley AC), and after a warm up jog on their cinder track we jogged to the start line and away we went. The race consisted of predominantly northern club runners and people from the north west, however a fair share [...]
National Senior Track & Field Championships
From Track Racing 2009 Aoifa Brady, a name to watch out for in the not to distant future. 1 of only 2 representative from Sportsworld to race in these prestiege championships. Saturday evening, 4:25pm National 5k on next, Aoife takes her place on that start line,she looks great,like she belongs. Bang, there goes the gun & there goes the girls,12.5 gruelling laps with a stronge enough wind in your face every time that home straight was hit. Linda Byrne & Rosmary Ryan were gone from the gun,it was clear from the start it was a 2 horse race between them, how-ever the race for bronze was there for who-ever was hungry enough to go for it. Aoife ran a very sensible race, she knew what she had to do. Staying tucked in the middle of the pack until it was time to go. 10.5 laps gone, 2laps left, 3rd place still up for grabs, just like changing gears in your car,Aoife change her gear fron 3rd to 4th,a gap was opened immediately,600mts still to race & off she goes,from 4th to 5th gear,that was it there was no catching her now. The sound of the bell…1 more lap,arms in full swing,legs in full stride,the field was broken.Aoife went on to clain a very fine National bronze medal in an excellent time of 17mins 38 behind 1st place Linda & 2nd place Rosemary. Sunday afternoon, 4:05pm, not as windy today, but still a wind none the less, time for Aoife to take her place on the track once again,this time accompanied by her sister & club/team-mate Crona. The 2 girls on the line side by side with some top athletes. The’re off for a very fast [...]