Week ending Saturday 2nd December
Cormac Dalton selected for European Cross Country
Congratulations to Cormac Dalton on being named on the Irish team to compete at the European Cross Country in Brussels in two weeks. The National Senior Cross Country in Gowran two weeks ago was the trial for the Europeans but only guaranteed the first three finishers a place on the team, but of course Cormac’s magnificent victory assured his place and he’ll lead a strong senior men team.
This will be Cormac’s fourth consecutive appearance at the European Cross Country, a fine record in itself, and will be his final race of what has been an excellent season so far. Cormac will be looking to improve on his performance in the Euro Cross in Turin last year where he ran a brave race on a tough hilly course to finish in thirty sixth place, fifth finisher for the Irish team that finished in eighth place. Everyone at Mullingar Harriers wishes Cormac the very best of luck.
Mullingar goes on the hunt for National Cross Country glory
After the excitement of day one of the National cross country in Gowran two weeks ago, where we were delighted to see Cormac Dalton win the senior men title, we’re off to Navan for day two this Sunday on the hunt for more National glory. This time, competition will be for novice women and men and for juvenile uneven age girls and boys. Mullingar will have novice women and men teams, teams in seven of the ten juvenile races and individual competitors in another two juvenile races. In total, we’ve entered nearly 20 adults and over 50 juvenile athletes, so the Mullingar colours will be very prominent in Navan.
While our underage athletes didn’t win any Club team medals in Gowran, though four of them did win medals with Leinster teams, many were running out of age. It’ll be a very different story in Navan when they drop down to their own age and if they can build on the experience gained in Gowran and match the performances we saw there, they’ll do very well and many have real prospects of winning National medals.
In addition to representing Mullingar and Westmeath, eighteen of our juvenile athletes will also be on Leinster teams, the largest number by far from any Club in Leinster. Everyone has been training hard in recent weeks, at the Club and in Belvedere, and should reap their rewards on Sunday when we hope many of them will return with National medals.
The first race will be at 11.30am and as we saw in Gowran, the crowds at an All-Ireland are much larger than at Leinster, so leave in plenty of time, allow extra time for traffic and parking delays entering the venue and head straight for the Club tent and banners to collect your race number. It will take longer to collect and sort race numbers, so you should be at the course by 10.30am at the latest. If for any reason you cannot compete, please let Club officials know as soon as possible.
You must wear your Club vest in a Championship. Please bring water or sports drink and a light snack, wet gear and a change of clothes, suitably long spikes, and of course four safety pins for your race number. We strongly advise spectators to bring waterproof footwear and to dress appropriately for the weather.
If for any reason you cannot compete, please let Club officials know as soon as possible. Everyone has been training very hard in recent weeks and expectations are high of more excellent performance in Cork.
The first race is at 11.30am and as the crowd at an All-Ireland is much larger than at Leinster, leave in plenty of time, allow extra time for traffic and parking delays entering the venue, and head straight for the Club flags to collect your race number. It will take longer to collect and sort race numbers, so you need to be at the course by 10.30am at the latest.
You must wear your Club vest in a Championship. Please bring water or sports drink and a light snack, wet gear and a change of clothes, suitably long spikes, and of course four safety pins for your race number. Spectators should watch the weather forecast and dress appropriately.
Sympathy
The Executive and members of Mullingar Harriers wish to express sincere sympathy to Brian Martin and the Martin and Redmond families on the recent death of his grandmother, May Redmond RIP.
Check the Club’s website at www.mullingarharriers.com or its Facebook page for all the latest news.
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