Week ending Saturday 16th December
Superb eighth place in Europe for Cormac Dalton
Everyone in Mullingar Harriers congratulates Cormac Dalton on his superb eighth place finish at the European Cross Country in Brussels last Sunday afternoon, leading the Irish senior men team to fourth place, their best finish place in many years. This capped a real breakthrough year for Cormac, coming quickly on the heels of his senior men cross country title three weeks before, his first National title since he was 11 years of age. Cormac really stepped up and announced his arrival on the big stage and looked completely at home as he mixed it with some of the biggest stars of European distance running.
After a week of rain and snow in Brussels, the ground was saturated and quickly broke down during the early races on the programme and by the time it came to the senior men 9,000m. the final race of the afternoon, the runners had to navigate long stretches of soft muddy ground and tricky slippery corners. In fact, underfoot conditions were rather reminiscent of Gowran for the National cross country where we saw Cormac more than equal to the muddy challenge, which must have given him huge confidence for the conditions in Brussels.
After a relatively conservative start, Cormac quickly settled into his running in the leading group, conserving as much energy as possible and staying inside the top ten places, a perfect place from which to gauge how the race is unfolding. The leading group began to slowly stretch out but Cormac stuck to his task and looked comfortable and strong as the laps counted down. Going into the final lap, Cormac was still in tenth place, but right on the heels of ninth, and the Irish team was in third. As expected, the final lap was a furious burn-up and while Cormac had enough in the tank to take him into eighth place, unfortunately the team was pushed into fourth place, just missing the bronze medals but top marks for effort by all. Just to emphasise how good eighth place is, this is the third best finish by an Irish man since the first European Cross Country was held in 1994, only Joe Sweeney (DSD) fifth in 2011 and Martin Fagan (Mullingar Harriers) seventh in 2007 have bettered Cormac’s performance.
In last year’s edition in Italy, Cormac finished in thirty sixth place and the Irish team in eighth, so this was a really significant improvement and augers well for the months ahead as he heads into 2024, an Olympic year.
Youngest members go on a break
This week we say goodbye to the boys and girls that train in the 6pm groups as they finish up for a well-earned Christmas break until early February. We’ll be holding an open day at the Club on Saturday 20th January when membership for 8, 9, 10 and 11 year old boys and girls for 2024 will be taken. Membership for these young boys and girls will be taken on a first come first served basis and when the groups are filled, we’ll take no more. An important rule in 2023 was that everyone had to take part in certain Club organised events or they will not be allowed to register again for 2024. If a child didn’t compete at all in 2023, we recommend that they don’t look to join again in 2024.
Christmas holiday arrangements
Many of our older juvenile members are taking a short break and will return after Christmas to prepare for the indoor season in the New Year. Of course, many of our adult members and our sprinters and field event athletes won’t get much break at all and will continue to train through Christmas to prepare for competitions early in the New Year. Check with your coaches to confirm training arrangements over the Christmas period.
Membership for 2024
The Club’s online membership system is open for everyone (except those aged 8, 9, 10 and 11 years of age) to renew their membership online for 2024. It’s important to renew as soon as possible so you are insured to train at the Club and of course to enter events like the Athletics Leinster Intermediate and Masters cross country and Juvenile cross country relays in January and the many road races that will take place over the new year period. Memberships for the youngest members will be taken at the open day on 20th January and cannot be done online.
Check the Club’s website at www.mullingarharriers.com or its Facebook page for all the latest news.
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