This Sunday January 16th sees the long awaited Woodie’s DIY Novice & Juvenile Uneven Ages Cross Country Championships of Ireland take place in the Charleville Demesne in Tullamore. These popular and important Championships were postponed late last month due to the inclement weather of the time which affected many parts of the country.
A fantastic day’s cross country running is promised with 12 action-packed races on the programme planned in the beautiful Charleville Demense in Tullamore, County Offaly.
For the organisers in Tullamore it will be the their first National cross country since 1971 when they hosted the National Junior championships, which was won by Padraig Keane of Clonliffe Harriers, from a certain Eamonn Coghlan of Metro AC.
These championships are being eagerly anticipated by the best of Ireland’s juvenile athletes in the uneven age groupings, and they will provide a packed afternoon’s sport in the 10 juvenile races on the day. This event has been the early proving ground for many of our senior athletes past and present who have gone on to achieve greater things in the sport.
The action gets underway at 11:30 AM with the first race of twelve of the day, the Girl’s U11 1500m race, and the first class afternoon’s sport will conclude with the Men’s Novice race at 15:00 PM over 6000m.
The full list of races for Sunday are: Girls & Boys U11, U13, U15, U17, U19 and then finally the women’s and men’s Novice Championships over 3000m and 6000m respectively.
Athletes will be competing in various categories within their age group races, as a member of a provincial team, a county team or their own athletics club team. There will also be number of individual competitors. All in all, it promises to make the series of 12 races highly competitive and exciting for the spectator and supporter alike.
In the women’s Novice race at 14:45 PM, athletes expected to compete with best of the field are Teresa Doherty (Donegal), Fiona McKenna (Dublin), Eimear O’Brien (Sligo) and Fiona Kehoe (KIlmore AC). There is though a significant entry for the women’s race so new names breaking through with good runs won’t be run out.
In the men’s Novice race, a cracking race is also expected with many ambitious athletes planning to push the pace over the 6000m course in the hope of finishing with a prized national cross country medal at the end of their endeavours.
Runners who will be toeing the line with big hope in their hearts on Sunday will include John Travers (Dublin), Ian Ward (Donegal), Patrick Hogan and Patrick Flynn (both of Waterford), and European Cross Country U23 Gold medal team member, Michael Mulhare of Laois, fresh from his highly encouraging run in Edinburgh over 4km last weekend.
The Woodie’s DIY Novice & Juvenile Uneven Ages Cross Country Championships of Ireland in Tullamore promise to be another great celebration of honest-to-goodness national cross country running at its best.
All welcome from 11 AM.
