Week ending Saturday 28th November

Mullingar takes on the Virtual Cross Country Club Challenge

There was a palpable sense of excitement at the Club last Tuesday and Thursday evenings when races were held for our younger juvenile athletes as part of the “Virtual Cross Country Club Challenge”, an initiative of Athletics Ireland to give some competition outlet for our “race-starved” juveniles. Clubs taking part were to hold races on a flat course on any training night between 1st and 24th November, awarding every runner a race time, which are to be submitted this week to create a National results sheet. Having our own flat grass track at the Club was obviously ideal for holding the races. The top four fastest times in each age group is deemed the Club team, and there will be medals for the first ten in each age group across Ireland and the top three teams in each age group will receive medals. Girls and boys aged under 9 and 10 ran 500m together, under 11 ran 1,000m, under 13 ran 1,500m, as did under 15 girls and boys.

The 1,500m races were held last Tuesday and while the numbers were obviously a lot smaller than the usual hundred or more at a Leinster or National cross country event, the competition was still very keen and of course there were also bragging rights at stake! Though not taking part, the sprinters enjoyed watching during the recovery stages of their session on the sprint lanes, and were happy to provide some vocal support. On Thursday it was the turn of the younger ages running over 500m and 1,000m and given the big number of training “pods” at the 6pm sessions, there was tremendous excitement generated by the crowd of youngsters watching and cheering on each race.

We’ll submit the results to Athletics Ireland this week and wait for the National individual and team results in due course.

What was in the news this time last year?

Among the standout performances for Mullingar at the National Senior, Junior and Juvenile Even Ages Cross Country in Dublin this time last year were Cormac Dalton, Jamie Battle and Claire Fagan who earned selection for the European Cross Country in Portugal last December 2009. We also witnessed brilliant performances from Amy Geoghegan and Phoebe Bate to earn selection on the Irish team to compete at the Celtic International Cross Country in Scotland last January 2020.

Cormac Dalton led the chasing group for much of the race in the senior men 10,000m and never letting up the pressure he came home in fifth place, delighted to finish first man under 23. With support from Andrew Nevin, James Keegan, Gerard Gavin and Patrick Muldoon, the team finished first grade “B” Club, a great result for our senior men and gaining promotion to grade “A”. Leading the Mullingar team home in the senior women 8,000m was Claire Fagan with a fantastic last lap to finish just outside the top twenty places, second woman under 23. Packing brilliantly behind in support was Sinead Whitelaw, Aine O’Reilly and Elizabeth Carr to finish third grade “A” Club and second grade “B” County.

Mullingar had athletes in all eight underage races and teams in six of them, three of them winning medals. Matthew Molloy drove over the line in seventh place in the u/12 boys 2,000m and with Cian Corcoran, Luke Greene, Niall Brady, Oliver Lynch, Conor Geoghegan and Conor Walsh providing terrific team support, the boys finished first Club. The Mullingar team took to the start line of the u/14 boys 3,000m as the clear pre-race favourites 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, the boys absolutely dominated and easily finished first Club by a very big margin. In the 6,000m for junior men and u/18 boys, taking the u/18 results on their own, first home was Matthew Glennon and with Oisin Lane, Eoin Quinn, Colin Smith, Lorcan Mullen and Ruairi Fagan in support, the boys finished third Club.

Sympathy

Finally, the Executive and members of the Club extend sincere sympathy to the Gillen family on the death last week of Thomas (Tommy) Gillen, RIP. Tommy was a great supporter of Mullingar Harriers in its early days. One of his sons, Maurice, was the Club’s first National Champion over 800m. His other sons Gerry and Declan also ran with the Club and of course we all know his eldest son, Brian, through his involvement with Westmeath Civil Defence, providing ambulance and first aid cover at every event organised by the Club for many years now.

For the latest news, results and details of fixtures check the Club’s Facebook page or the website at www.mullingarharriers.com.

PRO