Irelands best Cross Country Runners.

budapest2012

Who do people think have been Irelands best female and male Cross Country runners over the last 20 years.My own choices would be Catherina McKiernan and Seamus Power.

Pisco Sour

eh Sonia O'Sullivan? Double World Cross Country Champion

Catherina McKiernan obviously aswell with her 4 world silvers and 1 european gold.

And now Fionnuala.

Don't see how anybody in the last 20 years can come close to those 3 in this regard.

Going further back, John Treacy obviously with 2 world titles.

donothoponpop

I'd add Peter Matthews to the Seamus Power era. Treacy before them all right.

pconn062

I know he still has to prove himself yet but Joe Sweeney could be a contender for a great in the future, especially if that impressive 5th place at the Europeans a few weeks ago is anything to go by.

budapest2012

Joe is deffo one to watch.Second Inter County this year.I think Seamus Power has 9.

myflipflops

Treacy by a considerable distance on the mens side.

His 5th place in the World Cross in 1985 when the Africans had started to show up properly is probably the best performance by an Irish male cross country runner.

Pisco Sour

Honorouble mention to Ann Keenan Buckley's 10th place finish at the World Championships short race in Dublin in 2002. When you think that she was 41 years of age and that there were countless Africans in that race it is rather astonishing. Sonia's 7th place that day, just 2 months after giving birth was also pretty impressive. A well earned team bronze medal that day and perhaps one of the more underrated and underrappreciated achievements in Irish athletics.

Rogue Runner

For me Treacy, McKiernan and Fionnuala, what an incredible season the girl from Kilcoole has had.

Tombo2000

Is it not a bit tricky to judge when cross country isnt normally timed.

Anyways, am I right in saying that Ireland won the team event at the World Cross country in the early 1980s.....in other words, as a nation we had the best male cross countries in the world at that time, and at that time John Treacy was our best male cross country runner.

Past 20 years......couldnt say.

Pherekydes

Tombo2000 wrote: »

Is it not a bit tricky to judge when cross country isnt normally timed.

Anyways, am I right in saying that Ireland won the team event at the World Cross country in the early 1980s.....in other words, as a nation we had the best male cross countries in the world at that time, and at that time John Treacy was our best male cross country runner.

Past 20 years......couldnt say.

Ireland never won the team gold for either gender since it became the World Cross in 1973.

Tombo2000

Pherekydes wrote: »

Ireland never won the team gold for either gender since it became the World Cross in 1973.

You are right.

Ireland won the silver at the 1979 World Championships. I think the point still stands though.

Pherekydes

Tombo2000 wrote: »

You are right.

Ireland won the silver at the 1979 World Championships. I think the point still stands though.

I don't think it does. The East Africans only entered the WCCC in 1981. They've won every men's team title since.

They've won all but one women's title since 1991, every junior men's title since 1982 and every junior women's title, period.

Is there any need to examine the minor medal placings to conclude that the championships only became global with the inclusion of the East Africans?

Tombo2000

Pherekydes wrote: »

I don't think it does. The East Africans only entered the WCCC in 1981. They've won every men's team title since.

They've won all but one women's title since 1991, every junior men's title since 1982 and every junior women's title, period.

Is there any need to examine the minor medal placings to conclude that the championships only became global with the inclusion of the East Africans?

It applies to every athletics event I suppose.

Nonetheless the competition included all of Europe, Soviet bloc, North America, Australia, New Zealand.

Pisco Sour

Rogue Runner wrote: »

For me Treacy, McKiernan and Fionnuala, what an incredible season the girl from Kilcoole has had.

Incredible that you can ignore somebody who won both the Long course and Short course race in the one year at the World Championships, something which, in the 9 years that both races existed, only Tirunesh Dibaba has also achieved on the womens side. Many of the greats such as Paula Radcliffe, Gete Wami, Werknesh Kidane etc tried it, and failed. It was an incredibly tough double to achieve, one of the hardest in athletics, especially given the short recovery time.

Sonia O'Sullivan is Ireland's greatest cross-country runner, male or female.

Lock

04072511 wrote: »

Incredible that you can ignore somebody who won both the Long course and Short course race in the one year at the World Championships, something which, in the 9 years that both races existed, only Tirunesh Dibaba has also achieved on the womens side. Many of the greats such as Paula Radcliffe, Gete Wami, Werknesh Kidane etc tried it, and failed. It was an incredibly tough double to achieve, one of the hardest in athletics, especially given the short recovery time.

Sonia O'Sullivan is Ireland's greatest cross-country runner, male or female.

Incredible that you only seem to gauge achievement by comparing all of our cross country runners to that amazing double by Sonia in Marrakech and apparently ridicule someone who excludes her from their list. I'm not here to disagree with you on Sonia being our greatest cc runner, its certainly a good shout. I would list her as being our greatest runner of all time considering her records, medals and range and proficiency from middle distance up to 10k. Her world cross double is even more impressive considering she had a fairly average season by her standards the year before it in 1997 and at the time she wasn't even advised to run the double by Alan Storey. But come on, just because there was a special weekend where 2 golds were won for Ireland, you can't just deem every other cross country runner before or since 1998 as being distinctly average in comparison.

If you want to talk medals, McKiernan won Silver 4 years in a row in the early 90's which I'm sure you're aware of. There was a European title in there in 94' too. Look at that consistency man! She aimed for the world cross whereas O'Sullivan always had an eye on the summer. I'm not saying one would beat the other in a one on one but McKiernan IS a cross country runner which is what this thread is looking for. Thats all she ever was and thats why she was such a good marathon runner. Leave the 60 second last laps to Sonia. Give me a list of all the international cross country races that Sonia ran over the years, it won't be as long as her track or even road races I'd imagine. Which is why it irks me a little to see her listed as THE GREATEST HANDS DOWN DEBATE IS OVER in a thread where people have yet to mention Keith Kelly, John Downes, Michael Mulhare. They're the kind of runners that are tailor made for XC

Pisco Sour

Lock wrote: »

Incredible that you only seem to gauge achievement by comparing all of our cross country runners to that amazing double by Sonia in Marrakech and apparently ridicule someone who excludes her from their list. I'm not here to disagree with you on Sonia being our greatest cc runner, its certainly a good shout. I would list her as being our greatest runner of all time considering her records, medals and range and proficiency from middle distance up to 10k. Her world cross double is even more impressive considering she had a fairly average season by her standards the year before it in 1997 and at the time she wasn't even advised to run the double by Alan Storey. But come on, just because there was a special weekend where 2 golds were won for Ireland, you can't just deem every other cross country runner before or since 1998 as being distinctly average in comparison.

If you want to talk medals, McKiernan won Silver 4 years in a row in the early 90's which I'm sure you're aware of. There was a European title in there in 94' too. Look at that consistency man! She aimed for the world cross whereas O'Sullivan always had an eye on the summer. I'm not saying one would beat the other in a one on one but McKiernan IS a cross country runner which is what this thread is looking for. Thats all she ever was and thats why she was such a good marathon runner. Leave the 60 second last laps to Sonia. Give me a list of all the international cross country races that Sonia ran over the years, it won't be as long as her track or even road races I'd imagine. Which is why it irks me a little to see her listed as THE GREATEST HANDS DOWN DEBATE IS OVER in a thread where people have yet to mention Keith Kelly, John Downes, Michael Mulhare. They're the kind of runners that are tailor made for XC

I never said the others were average in comparison. I'm well aware of Catherina's achievements, and they are truly remarkeable. 4 silver medals in a row is something we may not see again, AND in an era where there were world class East Africans such as Derartu Tulu, unlike in John Treacy's era.

But it is my opinion that Sonia is the best cross country runner we've had. You could say that I should look beyond the World Cross and maybe you are right but in the end of the day that is the most important event for cross country runners and Sonia has won it, twice. At it's not as if that was a flash in the pan. She has had a distinguished career over cross country. 7th at the 92 Worlds, 9th at the 97 Worlds, 7th at the 2000 Worlds, 7th at the 2002 Worlds, 4th at the 2003 Europeans, and 2 world team bronze medals (1997 and 2002). And lets not forget cross country is where her career started from, with that stunning win at the 1987 national cross country champs, when she was just 17.

There are many arguments to suggest that McKiernan is the best each of which are valid. It is just my opinion that Sonia is the greatest. However listing Britton, and omitting Sonia is ludicrous to be honest.

ecoli

Lock wrote: »

Incredible that you only seem to gauge achievement by comparing all of our cross country runners to that amazing double by Sonia in Marrakech and apparently ridicule someone who excludes her from their list. I'm not here to disagree with you on Sonia being our greatest cc runner, its certainly a good shout. I would list her as being our greatest runner of all time considering her records, medals and range and proficiency from middle distance up to 10k. Her world cross double is even more impressive considering she had a fairly average season by her standards the year before it in 1997 and at the time she wasn't even advised to run the double by Alan Storey. But come on, just because there was a special weekend where 2 golds were won for Ireland, you can't just deem every other cross country runner before or since 1998 as being distinctly average in comparison.

If you want to talk medals, McKiernan won Silver 4 years in a row in the early 90's which I'm sure you're aware of. There was a European title in there in 94' too. Look at that consistency man! She aimed for the world cross whereas O'Sullivan always had an eye on the summer. I'm not saying one would beat the other in a one on one but McKiernan IS a cross country runner which is what this thread is looking for. Thats all she ever was and thats why she was such a good marathon runner. Leave the 60 second last laps to Sonia. Give me a list of all the international cross country races that Sonia ran over the years, it won't be as long as her track or even road races I'd imagine. Which is why it irks me a little to see her listed as THE GREATEST HANDS DOWN DEBATE IS OVER in a thread where people have yet to mention Keith Kelly, John Downes, Michael Mulhare. They're the kind of runners that are tailor made for XC

This was one person who came to mind not in terms of his competing on the world stage but just looking through his career and how you compare his cross country running to that of his track. Admittedly injuries did play a factor in this but he is definitely a runner who seems to excel more on the cross compared to his track or road exploits which to me should be a factor as we are talking best Cross country runner rather than best runner who ran cross country.

myflipflops

ecoli wrote: »

This was one person who came to mind not in terms of his competing on the world stage but just looking through his career and how you compare his cross country running to that of his track. Admittedly injuries did play a factor in this but he is definitely a runner who seems to excel more on the cross compared to his track or road exploits which to me should be a factor as we are talking best Cross country runner rather than best runner who ran cross country.

Really???

It's an easy list to narrow down.

Only 3 women to be considered are O'Sullivan, McKiernan and Britton.

Only men are Treacy and maybe Keith Kelly for the NCAA win. As superb as Seamus Power was in national cross country races, he never produced it in the Europeans or the World Cross.

O'Sullivan and McKiernan both have arguments in their favour but their is no doubt that John Treacy is number one on the mens side.

Hard Worker

Dave Taylor is another who shouldn't be forgotten. While he never excelled on the World stage, he was the best cross country runner on these islands for a number of years.
No doubt that Sonia and Catherina were brilliant. In my opinion, Catherina edges it with her 4 silvers. Sonia's golds were won on what could almost be described as a track.

longjump67

Haven't heard anyone mention Danny Mc Daid, 11th in the World X-country in Limerick, think he won the Ulster senior title 13 times and was well into his 40's when he won his last one.