Senior roundup
Cross country
We just had one competitor in the Dublin senior cross country championships in the CityWest complex on Sunday November 6th. Hosted by Tallaght AC, this course adjacent to the City West hotel in Saggart was a new one for all the competitors but got a favourable response despite some wet weather on the day. After assisting his juvenile charges in the races earlier in the day at CityWest, Niall Lynch an M50 athlete and coach ran solo in the men’s race finishing 37th – unfortunately there was no men’s team on the day – the runaway winner was Clonliffe Harriers Efrem Gidey and there were 48 finishers
In the USA the NCAA cross country season continued this week with the regional championships.
In John Hunt Park Huntsville Alabama on Friday November 11th – the Southern Regional championship took place over 10,000m. Louis O’Loughlin finished 42nd , 3rd scorer for his college Auburn in a 180 strong field in just under 31 minutes. He helped to bring the Auburn team to a 5th place finish
On the same day, The North East Division 1 regionals took place in Van Cortlandt park Bronx New York and Abdel Laadjel finished the 10k course in 38th place in a time of 30.29, 6th scorer for Providence out of the 227-strong field – at one point he was lying 3rd. His team Providence finished in 4th place
The British and Irish 6 nationals masters cross country championship was back on this year taking place in Santry demesne on Saturday November 12th where it has been held many times. The sole Donore athlete competing in the Irish vest was long time member and Fit4Life coach Barry Potts who was part of the Irish M70 team. Barry has competed in this race many times over the years. Santry has a reputation for becoming a quagmire in the rain but on this day, the ground was very favourable , the weather was mild and the rain held off. Barry was off in the first race of the day where the M65+ and W65+ ran in a joint race over 6k – 4 laps of Santry demesne. Barry had a solid race finishing 3rd scorer for Ireland, 15th M70 and 39th out of the 57 strong men’s field. The Irish team comprising Martin Kerr, Brian McBride and Barry won bronze overall in the M70 category with Scotland claiming gold.
Road
In a quiet few weeks for Donore runners since the marathon, we had one Donore runner in the IUAA road relays held in their traditional venue of the grounds of Maynooth University. NUI Maynooth student Adam Foy was the first runner off for his team in the 1 mile leg which he finished in 5.56. NUIM finished 25th out of 28th teams – the men’s title was won by the UCD A team.
Finally Josh O’Sullivan Hourihane emerged winner of the Munster Orienteering Championship held in Tramore Waterford and incorporating sand on the terrain over a distance of over 12 miles
(Juvenile reports will resume soon)