Sat 11th Feb Dunboyne track 10am sprints group and all others born 2009and older.
Sun 12th Feb anyone not competing in NIA today meet at 11am at the HITW.
Tue 14th Feb HITW 10.30 everyone
Thur 16th Feb HITW 10.30 everyone, no
Evening training this week.
Parents please watch out for updated program for Sunday in NIA which will
Be on the club website shortly
Its hard to believe that its exactly 40 years since we first competed in this championship which were held in the medieval town of Viterbo, located approx 60 miles north of Rome. In 1983, only the second iteration of the event, we were represented by Deirdre Nagle, Louise McGrillen, Greta Hickey, Ailish Smyth and Siobhan Treacy. At that stage our club had a powerful womens squad and much to the surprise of the other clubs we finished in 2nd place to the local and heavily sponsored team “Fiat SubLazio Formia”.
This began a run of fantastic performances which yielded 2ndplace again in 1984, winning in 1985 and 1986 with a string of high places until our last appearance there in 1992, where Frances Murphy, Catherine Smyth, Louise Cavanagh, Margaret Sweeney and Ailish Smyth flew our flag. Despite valiant efforts we didn’t win the national championships again for 30 years.
The event has undergone significant change since we last competed and today only four runners per team run, with only three to score. Two clubs per country are invited, each of which may invite a guest even up to Olympic championship standard to represent them. Hardly conducive for club building. Having said that the event was extremely well organised by the local club, accommodation was excellent and the food top notch. Fantastic live streaming was provided largely using mobile drone technology. Oropesa is effectively a summer holiday resort which was effectively a ghost town at this time of the year.
If Irish cross country is denoted by mud, hills, wind and rain, Spanish cross country is famous for tight twisting and turning courses on arid land and sand with artificial jumps on each lap. Imagine a course designed in a seaside park only 50m wide and perhaps 1500m long, bounded in by the sea. This was the Balearic section of the clear blue Mediterranean, no Kavanaghesque snot green sea.
Our team comprising of Cliona 32nd, Edel 40th, Avril 51st and Faye 66th(Aoife Carr competing for her Scottish Club took 61stplace) acquitted themselves well and finished in 12th position.Places were hard to come by and had to be fought hard for. The experience will stand us in good stead in the years to come. Our team and supporters demonstrated the club spirit which we are now renowned for.
We flew home through a beautiful evening sky, crimson setting sun to port and grapefruit rising moon to starboard. Then we were diverted to Belfast, dogged by drone issues at Dublin Airport and that’s a story for another day. How I hate drones.
The Leinster schools cross country were held in Santry today in perfect conditions. First club member into action was Megan who was aiming for a top 30
Place and she nailed it in 27th. Erin, Aoibhinn and Aimee were ranked well below their 7th place in the junior girls race and should be very happy with their race today.
Goda Cliodhna, Clare and Ash were a little disappointed with their team
Placing in 3rd overall in the senior race but potential there to improve on that in the Nationals. Christopher finished well above his ranking in the senior boys race. Well done to all.
A very busy 2 days of competition in Abbottstown this weekend for our older teenagers. First into action on Saturday were our 200m athletes. Aimee Ryan scraped into
the final under 16 but redeemed herself with a great final to finish an impressive 3rd. Aimee Corcoran, Max and Niamh raced well but missed out on final spots.
In the 800m races our under 15s , Hugh, Megan, Abigail and Ella gave it their all but didn’t progress to the finals . Erin and Goda both made the final under 16 with Goda coming 2nd and Erin 7th. Aoibhinn was just outside the qualifying time. Lily has her best run ever finishing 5th in the under 17 race and our best performer in the 800m was Cliodhna Ryan who knocked a whopping 7 seconds off her previous best time coming 2nd in her final under 19.
Martha was our only hurdles competitor and it was her first outing which is daunting for any athlete. After a positive start it sadly went wrong after the 2nd hurdle and as 60mh is unforgiving Martha will dust herself down and focus on the outdoor hurdles now.
In the long jump Alice retained her title winning with a fine jump of 4m 95. Martha without any practice jumped 4m 26! New event Martha?
On Sunday morning lily and Niamh ran their first ever 400m . Niamh was initially told she had made the final but this was later found to be incorrect so unfortunately didn’t get a second run which was a disappointment for Niamh and all of us. But plenty of opportunities coming outdoors to have a go over 400.
Goda had her first outing over 1500m on the track with a fine run finishing 2nd. Cliodhna Ryan finished off an inspiring weekend with great win in the under 19 race , leading most of the way and yet another 7 seconds pb running 4.57!
Martha and Aimee Ryan both had great 60m runs , both made their finals ( under 15 and 16 ) and both finished 5th! Aimee Corcoran just got squeezed out of a final
place in the under 16 race.
Max had a rare off day in the high jump under 16 and to finish off the day on the best note possible a delighted Tom won the walk under 14 and Lucien came 2nd both first timers. Well done lads and everyone else. We know there were lots of other pbs over the weekend and we will have full results later this week.
Thank you to all who represented the club and to the parents who supported.
Lovely to see the support our athletes had for each other for the good results and the disappointing ones .
Thank you to Keelin and Richie who volunteered all weekend doing photo
finish and timekeeping.
Best of luck to our senior women’s team tomorrow at the European inter clubs cross country in (hopefully) sunny Spain!!
Celtic DCH 