Week ending Saturday 26th October
Action-packed week-end ahead for Mullingar Harriers
This Saturday, Mullingar has entered nearly 110 Club members ranging from eleven years of age up to adult in the Leinster Cross Country Championships in Gowran, Co. Kilkenny and on Sunday, nearly forty adult members will compete in the AAI National Marathon Championships, which takes place in conjunction with the Dublin City Marathon. Of course, there will be many more entered in just the Dublin Marathon but not the AAI Championships. We wish everyone competing this weekend the very best of luck, especially the marathon runners as they face into their endurance challenge but they have worked hard and should be ready for it. The forecast for Sunday in Dublin is for cool but showery conditions, which will suit the runners well.
In Gowran we’ll have Club and County teams in most underage race for boys and girls under 12, 14, 16 and 18 years, and teams in the junior and novice men and women races too. The Mullingar underage athletes will be joined on some of the Westmeath teams by athletes from Athlone IT AC and judging by the results of the recent Westmeath Championships, we’re confident that they’ll make a valuable contribution to the County teams.
The names of those entered on teams are on the notice board in the Clubhouse. Juveniles can only move one age group in cross country, so u/11 can run u/12, but u/10 cannot run u/12. The u/10 athletes will get their first taste of Leinster Championship racing in the u/11 race in Ferbane, Co. Offaly in three weeks time. If for any reason you cannot compete in Gowran, please let Club officials know as soon as possible. This is the first major fixture of the season and a huge crowd will attend. Newcomers in particular are reminded that as this is a Championship they must wear a Club vest (buy one at training this week or borrow one). Please bring a change of clothes, a packed lunch, water or sports drink, four safety pins for your race number and check that you have at least 9mm spikes in your running shoes. Gowran AC is hosting the Championships and before the main events, there will be 1,000m races for girls and boys u/10 for any younger siblings attending; there is no need to register for the races, just turn up on the line ready to run. The girls race will be at 11.40am, followed by the boys race at 11.50am. The first Championship race proper, the girls u/12, will start promptly at 12 noon, followed by the rest of the underage races in quick succession and the programme will conclude with the novice races.
Obviously, Mullingar athletes will travel by car but there will be a very large attendance from all across Leinster and you are advised to allow extra time for traffic delays entering the venue in order to arrive early and get to know the course. We’d advise aiming to get to Gowran by 11am at the latest. There are likely to be showers on Saturday, so parents and adults are advised to wear suitable footwear.
Good early season form by Mullingar at AAI Autumn Cross Country
The domestic cross country kicked off in earnest last Sunday afternoon when the AAI Autumn Open Cross Country took place at the National Sports Campus in Abbotstown, Co. Dublin. This marked the start of the build-up to the European Cross Country Championships in Lisbon, Portugal in December and many of Ireland’s leading runners were in action, including a number from Mullingar. The races incorporated the trials for the Irish Masters team to compete at the British and Irish Masters International Cross Country in England in mid-November and Mullingar had a number of its master athletes in action vying for selection on the Irish team.
The programme consisted of two races. The first race was the 6,000m for senior and master women and finishing well up in the top 30 of the nearly 100 that competed was Aine O’Reilly in 23:35, the seventh master woman to finish, fifth in her master category. Following Aine in were Sinead Whitelaw (23:57) and Elizabeth Carr (24:54) finishing strongly in the senior women race, followed by Michelle Bohan (25:47) eighth in her master category and Maura Dervin (27:38) fifth in her master category. Combined in the first race was the 4,500m for junior women and older master women who ran a lap less and where Eileen Kenny finished in 21:32, second in her in master category, beaten for gold by just three seconds, ahead of Brigid McCabe in 21:50, third in her master category. These fine performances should earn Eileen and Brigid selection on the Irish Masters team.
The second race was the 7,500m for senior and master men and had a huge field of nearly 150 athletes. After a very fast opening lap, Cormac Dalton settled into his running and had an excellent race to finish eighth senior man in 23:37, fifth Irish man to finish and looks set to have a very good cross country season ahead. Among the masters, best for Mullingar was Gerard Gavin (27:13) eighth in his master category, followed by Eddie Newman (29:05) fifth in his master category and Pat Muldoon Senior (33:55) seventh in his master category. Like the first race, the second race was a combined race and running a lap less was the 6,000m for junior men, where Jamie Battle finished well up in fifth place against some of the top juniors in Ireland in 19:13. The pre-race publicity mentioned Jamie as one who should strongly feature, and this performance certainly saw him put down an early season marker of intent. Competing well also and sticking to their task was Euan Lagan (21:00) and Jack Moran (21:33).
Mullingar athletes in the prizes at Longwood 5k and 10k
The crisp but dry conditions last Sunday morning were perfect for running and helped to attract significantly increased entries for the tenth edition of the Longwood 5k and 10k road races. Coming home in first place in the 5k race in a time of 16:21, Andrew Nevin dominated from the start and led the pack of more than 260 runners, joggers and walkers home with over a minute to spare. Finishing strongly was Barry McDonald, eighth overall and third senior man in 18:56, followed by Linda Cunningham in 22:56, very pleased to win second prize in her master category. In the longer 10k race, which attracted an excellent entry of more than 320, first home for Mullingar was James Cribbin in 38:28, twelfth overall and third in his master category, followed by Evan McCormack (41:51) and Declan Costello (52:03).
For the latest results, news and details of all upcoming fixtures check the Club’s website at www.mullingarharriers.com.
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