European Cross Country Championships 2018 (9th Dec)
Brilliant European Cross Country debut for Jamie Battle
While he has competed in Schools and Club Internationals over the past three years, Jamie Battle stepped up to the big-time on Sunday morning 9th December when he lined up with the Irish Junior men team at the European Cross Country in Beekse Bergen Safari Park near Tilburg in the Netherlands. Jamie was giving away a year to many others in the race and will be eligible for the Junior race again next year, so on paper it was really all about exposure to this level of competition and gaining as much valuable experience as possible. However, Jamie clearly hadn’t read the script as he turned in a quite brilliant performance on his debut at this level. The course was tough, undulating up and down, soft underfoot in places, and included a number of sharp turns and corners and a short series of log barriers for good measure. Despite a tumble on the log barriers early in the race, Jamie recovered quickly and maintained his place just outside the top twenty throughout to finish a marvellous 21st place, well above pre-race expectations and his 3rd score for Ireland helped Ireland to 5th place in the team standings. This was a big step up from juvenile competition to European level but Jamie showed that he revels in the challenge of big competition and we hope this is the beginning of a long International career at the top level for Jamie.
No stranger to European Cross Country, Jack O’Leary represented Ireland for three consecutive years at Junior level and led the Irish team home on two of those occasions, but this time he was moving up to the more senior under 23 ranks, which is a big step, even for someone of Jack’s undoubted ability and experience. By the time he got to race, the course was breaking up and was very muddy and slippery in places, and heavy rain during the race didn’t help, but Jack is tough and dug deep to finish strongly. His placing well up in 61st place was excellent on his debut at this level and helped Ireland to 6th place in the team standings. Jack is underage again next year and he will have learned a lot from this performance and will look forward to improving on it next year.
