National Senior Interclubs Cross country

brutes1

Not long now.. 26/02/2011, Santry..12km. .hopefully the ground is better than ALSAA was recently!!

Is this the same course as Euro cross being used, or is it 6*2k laps...watched a great race in the interclubs here in 2009 between Kelly and Kenneally ..

bo-sco

I'm expecting a mudbath anyway. It was quite heavy in places for the Dublins back in November and the weather is obviously much wetter now. Forecast for the week is for rain too as far as I know.

wgtomblin

Sections of the Santry course hold the water very well, so could be a muddy affair. There's a couple of (small) inclines as well, compared to ALSAA which was as flat as they come. Having said that, the ALSAA course was churned up by over a dozen races that day. I'm not so sure if there are any more than four races at the Nat. Interclubs, but may stand corrected. Anyway, should be a good day of racing. Any predictions for Men's race? 1st 3 individual, 1st 3 clubs... or is it too early to call?

bo-sco

I guess Joe Sweeney has to be the favourite. Though Michael Mulhare is showing some great form recently and made light of the conditions in ALSAA two weeks ago. I don't imagine any of the US based athletes are planning to run?

wgtomblin

I agree, Sweeney has to be favourite, on current form. Will lay my cards early and say keneally and thornton in 2nd and 3rd but no idea if they are fit or whatever.

Presumably the team medals will once again be shared by Dublin clubs, especially as it's on 'home ground' yet again. For at least the last two years Dublin clubs have filled 5 of the top 6 team places. One can only hope that a few teams from outside the capital will make the trip this year. It is the 'national' inter-club champs after all.

brutes1

Would agree Sweeney is favourite, unless Ledwith/Fagan run..?..Dont think you are far off the mark with the other contenders, GT, Kenneally, Mulhare..hopefully a better turnout than previous years, barely 100 last yr and very low numbers in womens also..
BTW The fewer laps the better in a race like this, less chance of gettin lapped which a good part of the field who are half decent club runners aim for...

ecoli

Can wait for this. Did a XC session Wed which was a moodbath and loved every min of it. Nothing like the muddy conditions to make a race interesting, no worry about times just true racing

Anyone else doing this?

bo-sco

I'm running anyway.

ChampionChip

Pleased to say we are doing the chips at the race this year. Hoping to be able to do live lap splits onto the LED screen as well as finish times etc and get team results done asap. It works well at the NI Federation events in the North so we thought AAI would welcome a go at it for their championships. If it goes well I hope they make a permanent arrangement with us.

Also hope to post the results immediately onto my web site an AAI web site so if you have a suitable device available to access the web you could see the results once they have been checked and verified.

brutes1

If its anything like ALSAA a few chips could get lost in the mud..are they chips for spikes or in-race-number chips....

ChampionChip

Thanks for the heads up on the conditions. The chips are the ones for the spikes as they are more reliable than the bib ones. We found in the past at XC its the younger runners who have less experience with poor underfoot conditions that lose their spikes. The older runners are a bit wiser and its unusual for it to happen to them. Besides we also have a manual backup at the line to spot runners with no chip and insert their time manually. It happened to us in 2010 at Greenmount when it was very muddy but we were prepared for it.

X files

Visited it the other day should be fun in the muck

asimonov

i'm in for this one too; on the plus side I will get to see some very fast runners up close (a few times)...

thirstywork2

My head says Sweeney will win this but heart says Michael Mulhare.Straight match between them.
Dsd will win mens team easy.

brutes1

Any one know how the course is holding up in Santry, is it heavy going...how many laps? ??..

wgtomblin

brutes1 wrote: »

Any one know how the course is holding up in Santry, is it heavy going...how many laps? ??..

6 x 2k laps I'd venture.
AAI website calls it a "fast, flat course" so must be holding up very well despite all the wet weather. Looking forward to it....

echat

Some terrific racing today on an almost dry Santry course. Siofra Cleirigh-Buttner (DSD) led off proceedings with a win in the junior women from Niamh Denny (DSD) and Shauna Moore (Dunshaughlin).

Shane Quinn (Waterford) had a clear win in the junior men from Kevin Dooney (Raheny) and Liam Brady (Tullamore).

Ava Hutchinson (DSD) won the senior women from Eilish Kelly (Raheny) and Gladys Ganiel O’Neill (Abbey). Kelly came through well during the race and she has the plucky attitude of Fionnuala Britton which augurs well for the years ahead.

Joe Sweeney (DSD) was always going to win after he took care of a hard first lap led by Gary Thornton (Galway). These two were gone from the start. Brendan O’Neill (DSD) bided his time in a large chasing group before emerging for the silver medal ahead of Mick Clohissey (Raheny) and Mark Kirwan (Raheny). Raheny finally got the better of Clonliffe only to find DSD winning all four club titles with Raheny taking silver in three of them. DSD also had three individual wins.

A fine championship thanks to the hard work of many officials and administrators. However AAI may need to start sending full Irish teams to the World cross-country again if they want this event to regain its former passion.

Eddie McDonagh for 2011 Coach of the Year.

Stupid_Private

ChampionChip wrote: »

Also hope to post the results immediately onto my web site an AAI web site so if you have a suitable device available to access the web you could see the results once they have been checked and verified.

*cough* *cough*

groovyg

Results are up on the AAI website
http://www.athleticsireland.ie/content/?page_id=160

asimonov

Stupid_Private wrote: »

*cough* *cough*

Great running there SP

That was a pretty fair course; a couple of the corners were cut up but overall it was fairly dry. I finished 80th in 46:28, maybe started a little too conservatively, did well enough in the middle laps and then like everyone was hanging on for the last bit. We didn't have a team out.

ChampionChip

I have the lap splits available for the 4 races if you email me I can put them out to you. championchipireland@googlemail.com

aburke

Athenry AC and Tullamore Harriers were the only 2 non-Dublin clubs to field scoring teams in senior mens and senior womens races.

oldrunner

There were only 6 scoring women teams - 4 from Dublin 2 outside. So, it's hardly surprising. There were 21 scoring teams in the men's race - 11 from Dublin and 10 from outside. But if you adjust for Clonliffe and Raheny B teams, then the split is 10 clubs from outside Dublin and 9 from Dublin. Seems like a good representation to me.