Confirmed Team will be sent to World XC

runjb

It has been confirmed that an Irish women's team will be sent to the upcoming World XC Championships! Great news and best of luck to them!

rom

runjb wrote: »

It has been confirmed that an Irish women's team will be sent to the upcoming World XC Championships! Great news and best of luck to them!

Excellent

Krusty_Clown

So... Who's on the team?
*Edit*: You mean they have sent out a request to have athletes complete an 'expression of interest' form?

I particularly like this section in the policy document:

To achieve our High Performance vision of “more athletes wining on the world stage” Athletics Ireland  will select individual(s) /
team(s) for the 2013 IAAF World Cross Country Championships, where an athlete and/or team selected to compete, will be expected
to obtain a top 30 individual / top 8 team finish

Do you have to be a connoisseur, or can you still apply, if you enjoy an occasional tipple?

runjb

Ankrom has come out and said today that with the possibility of Mary Cullen now becoming involved there is no reason why the team cannot achieve a top 8 finish and even on a good day sneak a medal. Obviously Fionnuala will be involved but no other names confirmed in the news report.

dna_leri

Krusty_Clown wrote: »

So... Who's on the team?
*Edit*: You mean they have sent out a request to have athletes complete an 'expression of interest' form?

I particularly like this section in the policy document:

Do you have to be a connoisseur, or can you still apply, if you enjoy an occasional tipple?

I think there is an incorrect spelling in that quote:

To achieve our High Performance vision of “more athletes whining on the world stage” Athletics Ireland will select individual(s) / team(s) for the 2013 IAAF World Cross Country Championships, where an athlete and/or team selected to compete, will be expected to obtain a top 30 individual / top 8 team finish

ecoli

Britton, Byrne, Hutchinson and Lizzie Lee pre selected with the other two places to be selected based on form

Codliveroil

After wining a 'Joggers' race on the road it looks like Mary Cullen will be selected for the World Cross Country championships.

That simply defies logic.

It would be far better for Cullen to develop her race fitness in a few more races before going to a World championship where she would likely finish closer to last than first.

Krusty_Clown

Codliveroil wrote: »

After wining a 'Joggers' race on the road it looks like Mary Cullen will be selected for the World Cross Country championships.

I presume that's a bit of a wind-up/troll, however, I was wondering about Mary Cullen's suitability for XC, given that her focus has been on recovering from injury and build-up, and has probably missed the boat on getting any XC-specific experience. Having said that, she was ~40 seconds ahead of Linda Byrne and took 20 seconds off the course record (which previously belonged to Maria MacAmbridge) so you'd have to say that even without the XC experience, she would be very competitive with some of the other girls on the team.

Perhaps you could explain the logic that this potential decision might defy? Are you more concerned about Cullen's welfare, or the potential impact to the Irish XC team?

Ceepo

Codliveroil wrote: »

After wining a 'Joggers' race on the road it looks like Mary Cullen will be selected for the World Cross Country championships.

That simply defies logic.
.

I'm fooked if i know what that is supposed to mean

CHINTO

Codliveroil wrote: »

After wining a 'Joggers' race on the road it looks like Mary Cullen will be selected for the World Cross Country championships.

That simply defies logic.

It would be far better for Cullen to develop her race fitness in a few more races before going to a World championship where she would likely finish closer to last than first.

What experience do u have to determine how fit and what race is suitable for an elite athlete like Cullen? The answer is none. You obviously don't know anything about her and her training.

tunguska

Codliveroil wrote: »

After wining a 'Joggers' race on the road it looks like Mary Cullen will be selected for the World Cross Country championships.

That simply defies logic.

It would be far better for Cullen to develop her race fitness in a few more races before going to a World championship where she would likely finish closer to last than first.

Maybe Raheny is a joggers race but her performance that day was a class apart. I mean shes been out of action for the guts of 2 years and then she comes back and runs under 26mins..........Shes a beast. I remember being in sportsmed one day and seeing her absolutley battering the treadmill out of it. She must've had the thing up at 15% incline there was no prisoners been taken. I'd fancy her for the world cross country in a heartbeat.

fiddy3

Joggers race? This is a woman who trounced Linda Byrne, who herself wasn't all that far behind Britton in many recent XC runs. World xc is more of a road race these days than most people's idea of 'real' cross country. Cullen was NCAA champ over 5,000m and fifth at NCAA cross country, fourth in Euro xc. When an athlete of that calibre says she's fit, and indeed proves it over similar race distance, you just believe her and let her onto the damn team without asking her to slog around some mucky Irish field to prove what we already know. No need to run a needless risk of picking up an injury that will jeopardise the team's chances of a good finish.

myflipflops

Is the average finishing time in the London marathon not about 4 hours?

That must be a joggers race. I would hate to win that.

CHINTO

Codliveroil wrote: »

After wining a 'Joggers' race on the road it looks like Mary Cullen will be selected for the World Cross Country championships.

That simply defies logic.

It would be far better for Cullen to develop her race fitness in a few more races before going to a World championship where she would likely finish closer to last than first.

Hey codliveroil what running experience do you have? do u coach are u a seasoned athlete a weekend warrior or more likely do u just read the odd mag and make your negative conclusions from there? Maybe u should go for a run the exersize might give u a more + positive outlook on things.

myflipflops

Codliveroil wrote: »

After wining a 'Joggers' race on the road it looks like Mary Cullen will be selected for the World Cross Country championships.

That simply defies logic.

It would be far better for Cullen to develop her race fitness in a few more races before going to a World championship where she would likely finish closer to last than first.

Worth dragging this up after Mary Cullen destroyed a field including Linda Byrne at the National Cross.

In general terms, she adds lots more strength to the team going to World Cross. It will be interesting to see how close to Fionnuala Britton she could get.

thirstywork2

Last time they raced head to head Britton came out on top in Sligo.Mary in amazing shape but it would be an extra ordinary run if Mary was to finish ahead of her.

myflipflops

thirstywork2 wrote: »

Last time they raced head to head Britton came out on top in Sligo.Mary in amazing shape but it would be an extra ordinary run if Mary was to finish ahead of her.

I don't think she can realistically finish ahead of Britton. It would probably take something to go wrong for that to happen. Just interesting to get a comparison in a major race to see where Mary Cullen actually is. It is difficult to judge somebodies real form when they are winning by 35 seconds, even in beating an athlete as good as Linda Byrne.

easyleisure

I think she might surprise people and I wouldn't be surprised if she does beat fionnuala. Gonna be some team!

thirstywork2

Codliveroil wrote: »

After wining a 'Joggers' race on the road it looks like Mary Cullen will be selected for the World Cross Country championships.

That simply defies logic.

It would be far better for Cullen to develop her race fitness in a few more races before going to a World championship where she would likely finish closer to last than first.

http://www.independent.ie/sport/other-sports/cullen-hits-top-form-as-byrne-left-in-wake-29091714.html

wgtomblin

runjb wrote: »

It has been confirmed that an Irish women's team will be sent to the upcoming World XC Championships! Great news and best of luck to them!

Off-topic I know, but Dathan Ritzenheim's recent comments about World Cross struck a chord... The men's race at least, has been in steady decline. There is a drive to have the event brought back to the olympics (winter) which would give it more relevance and prestige.

"Initially, after the marathon last year, I was kind of gung-ho and excited to do cross country. And the thing that made me disappointed about it is that it’s become very insignificant, I guess. My excitement level wasn’t going to be matched by the excitement that the race would create, unfortunately."
"It’s really sad to me, because cross country is something that I love a lot. I started thinking about it over the course of the winter. Just knowing that unless I went there and I won the race, it really wouldn’t matter, probably. No one would care. Then they announced that the next cross country championships are somewhere in interior China in 2015. The race has become insignificant."