Week ending Saturday 11th November
Truly memorable day for Mullingar at Leinster Cross Country
Over the years, Mullingar Harriers has won, at different times, all the Leinster cross country Club titles from under 11 girls through to Novice, Intermediate and Senior women and from under 11 boys through all the underage titles to Novice and Intermediate men but never the Senior men Club title. That was put right last Saturday at the Leinster Senior, Under 23 and Juvenile Uneven Ages cross country held in a wet and muddy Dunboyne, Co. Meath where Mullingar made a bit of memorable Club history by winning the Senior men Club title in style. So, now we can boast of having won every Leinster cross country Club title in the book! A very nice achievement as the Club approaches its fiftieth anniversary in 2025.
That wasn’t the only success in Dunboyne however, as Claire Fagan won the Senior woman title and led Mullingar to second Club and Westmeath to third County, Vinny Connolly won the Senior men title leading Mullingar to gold and Westmeath to gold, we had eighteen juvenile top-12 finish places, including Leinster titles for Daniel Cummins (under 11) and Cillian Galvin (under 13), our underage teams won five sets of Club team medals, another two Club teams placed fourth, and Westmeath won two sets of County team medals, and another team finished in fourth place, meaning Mullingar and Westmeath will have a very big squad competing at the All-Ireland finals in Navan in December.
Heavy rain on and off all week and on the night before the event meant that the course in Dunboyne was very soft before we even started but thanks to a lot of very hard work put in all week by volunteers from the host Club, Dunboyne AC, everything was ready. The forecast was bad but the weather on the day actually wasn’t that bad at all, with near calm conditions and only the occasional light shower, but the ground still got very muddy in places, especially in one part of the course where the runners had to splash thorough a long section of mud, making for proper cross country conditions!
The Leinster Championships got underway with the u/11 girls 1,500m where Katie Bohan, Aoife Dunne, Muireann Feery, Helen McGrath, Lauryn Smith, Amelie Downes, Rose Harte, Farah Fox (Athlone AC), Eve Nugent and Lily Archbold battled hard and were very unlucky to finish fifth Club, only four points off the fourth place that would have secured them a place in the All-Ireland finals. The girls also finished a very creditable fifth County. We knew the Mullingar and Westmeath teams in the u/11 boys 1,500m were very strong and hopes were high of team success. Daniel Cummins ran a brilliant race to finish first and win the Leinster title, and with fantastic support and team packing from Mel Bohan (10th), Conor Gavin (12th), Cillian McManus (Athlone AC), Adam O’Donoghue, Cillian Gavin, Aaron Robinson, Cian Gavin, Michael Kiernan, Noah Morgan, Rory McDonnell, Josh Boyhan, Andrew Bradley, Cillian Martyn and Fintan Harte it was no surprise that the boys finished first Club and first County to get Mullingar and Westmeath on the medal board.
In the u/13 girls 2,500m Lily Walsh timed her final push to the finish perfectly and she pulled clear of the pack and chased the leader hard up the finish straight and was clearly delighted to cross the line in a close second place, and with Shaynah Mitchell, Chloe Bell, Lucy Kilmurray, Aoibhe Martyn, Liadan Gavin, Emily Tully, Clodagh, Aaliyah Downes and Muirin Dunne working hard to the finish, led the team to second Club. We had our second individual winner of the day in the u/13 boys 2,500m where Cillian Galvin simply dominated, pulling clear in the closing stages to win by a distance, and with Antonio Bertolo racing hard to fourth place, and great team support from Gareth Glennon, Louis Kiernan, Harry Flanagan, Aonghus O’Reilly and Andrew Feery the boys finished first Club and were delighted with their gold Leinster team medals.
Mullingar continued to gather individual medals in the u/15 girls 3,500m where Tianna O’Leary raced to sixth, followed closely by Eleanor Kiernan in eighth and with Isabel Tynan Daly, Blathnaid Peters, Emma Lagan, Beibhinn O’Reilly and Chloe Duggan fighting for every place, the team finished fourth Club, a place in the All-Ireland finals but they really deserved more from the race such was their combined team efforts. It was a close fourth Club place too in the u/15 boys 3,500m where Conor Walsh led the Mullingar team home with an excellent fifth place finish, supported by Conor Geoghegan, Daniel Glennon, Cormac McGrath, Daniel Horohoe and Morgan Isdell. Like the u/15 girls these boys really deserved team medals for their efforts.
We didn’t have a team in the u/17 girls 4,500m but that didn’t deter Ailbhe O’Farrell from giving her customary strong performance and she was rewarded with a fine eleventh place finish and a place on the Leinster Provincial team at the All-Ireland finals. No problem fielding a team in the u/17 boys 4,500m and with Matthew Molloy finishing in tenth, just ahead of Donagh Carey clinching twelfth in a photo finish on the line, and with terrific support from Jamie Wallace, Oisin Kehoe, Luke Greene, Txema Lozano, Conor Mulvany and John Glennon packing well to the end, the boys placed first Club and fourth County, to see them all qualify for the All-Ireland finals.
Grace Byrne finished an excellent fifth place and Jessica Cunningham in eleventh place in the u/19 girls 5,000m and only for a third girl, Mullingar would have won the Club title and be right in the mix for County team medals too but that doesn’t detract from the excellent performances by Grace and Jessica and they qualify for the All-Ireland finals with the Leinster Provincial team. We had a wealth of talent in the u/19 boys 5,00m where John Ryan raced to third, just ahead of Conor Sherwin in fourth and with Ross Killalea in eighth and Pablo Lozano in tenth. Four in the top twelve and great team support from Philip McCartan and Conleth Mullen meant there was no surprise that the team finished first Club and first County to round off the underage programme in style.
Moving to the senior races, Mullingar certainly kept the best for last. Claire Fagan lost little time stamping her authority on the Senior women 6,000m race, pulling away effortlessly and with a truly dominant display went on the win by a distance. Aine O’Reilly, Anna Broderick, Michelle Bohan and Linda Cunningham put in great efforts behind and were rewarded for their efforts by finishing second Club and third County. The nine men strong Mullingar team in the Senior men 9,000m stormed out hard from the gun and also lost little time stamping their mark on the race. The lead eventually whittled down to three, with Vinny Connolly in control at the front and Kevin Moore in close contact. Racing on over the long mucky sticky course, Vinny pulled clear to win, with Kevin in second. Following in close behind was Andrew Nevin in fifth, and with brilliant support and team packing by James Keegan, Andy Boyhan, Kedagh Geoghegan, Kris Foster, Alan Crowley and Brian Martin it was inevitable that the men placed first Club and first County. This was a terrific conclusion to a memorable day for Mullingar Harriers. Over the last year, Vinny has won the Leinster Novice and Intermediate titles and has now added the Senior title but more importantly with the support of the senior men squad led Mullingar to its first Senior men Club title.
Thanks to the many parents and coaches that attended to support our teams, especially our young u/11 teams where some of them were competing in their first Leinster Championship races, so they really needed plenty of attention and support to keep any nerves at bay. The next outing is the National Senior, under 20 and Juvenile Even Ages cross country finals in Gowran, Co. Kilkenny in two weeks, where many that competed last Saturday will also be in action. The juvenile even age teams that qualified from Dunboyne will go forward to the All-Ireland Finals in Navan, Co. Meath in four weeks but in the meantime, it is vital that everyone continues to train hard and be in the best possible condition for the All-Ireland Finals, so we expect everyone to keep in full training over the coming weeks, especially in Belvedere this week-end.
Top class run by Cormac Dalton in Spain
Cormac Dalton had his first cross country race of the season and finished with a brilliant eleventh place at the Cross Internacional de Atapuerca in Burgos, Spain last Sunday week (29 October). The race was a Gold Level meeting on the World Athletics Cross Country Tour and this was reflected in the quality of the field, with some of the world’s leading endurance athletes present. The race was won by the 2020 Olympic 10,000m bronze medallist and current World Cross Country Champion, Uganda’s Jacob Kiplimo with Kenyan athlete Ronald Kwemoi, who has placed in the top eight at World Championships, in second place.
Cormac positioned himself in the top fifteen from the start and found himself leading the chasing group for much of the race, which was held in very windy conditions on a typical European cross country course with tight corners and a selection of man-made obstacles to be negotiated. He finished very strongly to claim eleventh place amongst a group of established international endurance athletes.
He will now turn his attention to preparing for the National Cross Country Championship in Gowran, Kilkenny in two weeks.
Check the Club’s website at www.mullingarharriers.com or its Facebook page for all the latest news.
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