Monday, October 17, 2016

AAI Autumn Open Cross Country 2016

The unveiling of the new cross country course at the National Sports Campus in Abbotstown, Dublin was eagerly waited at Athletics Ireland's Autumn Open Cross Country race festival on Sunday 16th October. The adult races also doubled as the trial for the British and Irish Masters Cross Country Championships.

The course itself was a pretty testing one with several hills and a 100m sandy section that drew much comment. The downpours of the weekend added a fair bit of mud into the mix. The lap was a long 2000m which brought the athletes into the woods and well away from spectators. The consensus from the athletes generally was that it was a fair but hard course, the spectators found it even tougher!

First off for the adults were the senior and masters women over 3 laps of 2k. 65+ women completed 2x2k laps. First home from our club was Maria McCarthy, who won her category and was placed 25th overall. Bernie O'Mahoney, competing at this event for the very first time ran very well to finish fourth in her category. Caitriona Barry finished strong to be placed 7th in her category. Niamh De Hora was competing in the Senior Women's race. Following on from her success at county level, Niamh finished in 30th place overall. Teams will now be selected for those who will represent Ireland in the British & Irish Masters Cross Championships which will be held in Tolcross Park, Scotland on Saturday 12th November. We wish everyone all the best.
At the award presentation there was a moving tribute to the late Jim McNamara. He competed in this race many times including in 2015 for the last time and he was arguably Ireland's greatest ever masters athlete. The Irish Masters Athletics Association (IMAA) commissioned two trophies for the first master man and woman in the race. With the cooperation of Jim's family, a pair of his spikes was crafted into two beautiful perpetual trophies. These were presented to Letterkenny AC's AnneMarie McGlynn and to Slieve Gullion's Paddy Hamilton.