AAI Senior, Junior and Juvenile Even Ages XC 2019 (24th Nov)
A string of International selections for Mullingar Harriers athletes
The senior and junior women and men races at the AAI Senior, Junior and Juvenile Even Ages Cross Country on Sunday 24th November at the National Sports Campus in Abbotstown, Dublin were trials for the European Cross Country Championships in Lisbon in December, so there was a lot at stake in these races. Among the standout performances for Mullingar in Abbotstown were Cormac Dalton, Jamie Battle and Claire Fagan who earned selection for the European Cross Country. We also witnessed brilliant performances from Amy Geoghegan and Phoebe Bate to earn selection on the Irish team to compete at the Celtic Cross Country in Scotland in January, team medals for the Senior Women and the Senior Men, and medals for 3 of our underage teams.
The amount of rain that fell in Dublin in the week leading up to the event gave everyone that planned to attend cause for concern about the condition of the course. Thankfully, the day itself was dry, mild and very calm but underfoot conditions were tough, as expected, with parts of the course reduced to long stretches of slippery mud, making the going very difficult and it really took its toll on tired limbs. However, the Mullingar athletes coped admirably with the conditions.
Where do you start to describe the action and excitement? We’ll start with the final race of the day, the Senior Men 10,000m where Cormac Dalton displayed his cross country talent to the full, leading the chasing group for much of the race behind long time leader and eventual winner, Liam Brady of Tullamore Harriers. Cormac greatly appreciated the level of support he received from the Mullingar spectators dotted around the course encouraging him to keep working hard over the long tough very mucky and sticky course. Never letting up the pressure, Cormac came home right in the mix with the leaders in 5th place, justifiably delighted to finish 1st u/23 man, which guarantees him a place on the Irish team at the European Cross Country. Cormac was also part of a Mullingar team and with support from Andrew Nevin, James Keegan, Gerard Gavin and Patrick Muldoon, the team finished strongly in tough conditions to place 3rd Club in the “B” division, which is a great result for our senior men.
Preceding the men’s race was the Senior Women 8,000m and leading the Mullingar team home was Claire Fagan with a fantastic last lap to finish just outside the top twenty places, the 2nd u/23 woman and securing selection for the European Cross Country. Leaving nothing on the course and giving absolutely everything they had, packing brilliantly behind Claire in support was Sinead Whitelaw, Aine O’Reilly and Elizabeth Carr to finish 3rd Club in the “A” division and 2nd County in the “B” division. Senior medals are very hard to win and this result comes on the back of very hard work over the past year and longer by our dedicated senior women squad.
Before that again was the 6,000m for Junior Men and u/18 boys where Jamie Battle lived up to his pre-race billing as a contender for a place on the Irish team and he too showed his class with a fine 4th place finish to secure selection for the European Cross Country. Jamie also led the Mullingar junior men team to an excellent fifth Club and fifth County thanks to great teamwork and support from Matthew Glennon, Euan Lagan, Oisin Lane, Eoin Quinn, Colin Smith, Lorcan Mullen, Brian Martin and Ruairi Fagan. Looking at the u/18 results on their own, first home was Matthew and with Oisin, Eoin, Colin, Lorcan and Ruairi in support, the boys finished 3rd Club to win All-Ireland bronze medals.
These marvellous races came at the end of an equally exciting underage programme, where Mullingar had athletes in all eight underage races and teams in six of them. Proceeding got underway with the u/12 girls 2,000m where Tianna O’Leary led the Mullingar team home. Despite great efforts by Lydia McDonnell, Muireann Reihill, Jayne Charles, Therese Daly and Aiveen Lynch, the team finished out of the medals, but not for the want of effort and hard work. Despite being a bit under the weather, Matthew Molloy ran himself ragged in the u/12 boys 2,000m and collapsed over the line in 7th place and with Cian Corcoran, Luke Greene, Niall Brady, Oliver Lynch, Conor Geoghegan and Conor Walsh providing terrific team support, the boys finished 1st Club. Matthew also earned a gold medal with the Leinster team in the Inter-Provincial competition.
Morgan Corcoran led the Mullingar team home in the u/14 girls 3,000m. Packing close behind her was Adele Geoghegan, Caoimhe Kilmurray, Leah Geoghegan, Rachel Murphy, Grace Byrne, Ellen Daly, Lucy Donnelly, Shauna Traynor and Caoimhe Donohue but the girls were one of the unluckiest teams of the day, finishing 4th Club and missing the bronze medals by a simply agonising single point. For the record, they also finished a very creditable 6th County. The Mullingar team took to the start line as the clear pre-race favourites in the u/14 boys 3,000m and certainly lived up to expectations. Led home by Jamie Wallace, and followed in by Conor Liston, Philip McCartan, Luke O’Leary, Conor Sherwin, Pablo Lozano, David Burke, Alex Lynch and Callum Costello who fell ill during the race but kept going anyway in the interest of the team, the boys absolutely dominated and easily finished 1st Club by a very big margin. The team also finished 4th County, just out of the medals by a few points. Jamie, Conor and Philip also won gold medals with the Leinster team.
On to the u/16 girls 4,000m where as referred to above, Amy Geoghegan and Phoebe Bate turned in brilliant performances. Though having raced hard on a very tough energy-sapping mucky course, Amy and Phoebe found extra gears somewhere and with phenomenal finish speed made up huge ground over the final few hundred metres to pull themselves from out of the following pack right up to the back of the leaders. Sprinting up the finish straight, Amy collapsed over the line in 6th and Phoebe was close behind her in 9th. It took Amy some time to recover from the exertion but there is little doubt her recovery was aided by knowing that both she and Phoebe had run themselves into qualification places on the Irish team to compete at the Celtic Cross Country in Stirling, Scotland in January. These will be richly deserved International debuts for them. Looking to the team, following in was Aisling Lane, Meghan Bates, Annie Kilmurray and Aoife McGouran but the team finished out of the medals, though a very creditable 6th Club. Amy and Phoebe also won silver medals with the Leinster team. We had no team in the u/16 boys 4,000m but we were able to cheer for the very talented Diarmuid Fagan who stuck to his task and was rewarded for his efforts with a silver medal with the Leinster team. Diarmuid will drop down to his own u/15 age group and lead a strong Mullingar team in Dunboyne in three weeks time and being the Leinster Champion, is sure to be in the reckoning for National honours.
The 4,000m for Junior Women and u/18 girls was a combined race and athletes could declare on both teams, as well as score individually. We had no u/18 team, but Meabh Killalea and Bea Drummond competed well, finishing well up and they can be very satisfied with their performances. Both were part of the Mullingar Junior team though, led home by Meabh, and with support from Aoife Darby, Bea, Andrea Brady, Karla Cunningham, Catriona Kennedy and Laura Shaw the team finished a very creditable 6th Club against top class opposition.
The final underage race was the 6,000m for Junior Men and u/18 boys where we know already that Jamie Battle secured European qualification and the u/18 boys team finished 3rd Club. We finished the day on an absolute high with brilliant performances from Claire Fagan and the Senior Women team, and from Cormac Dalton and the Senior Men team.
