Irish teams announced for European XC

pa4

The Irish teams were announced today for the European XC. Their not sending any women in the U.23 category.. other than that no real surprises. About time they start sending full teams of 6 and 2 reserves.

Link: http://www.athleticsireland.ie/content/wp-content/uploads/2013/11/irish_team-for-the-european-cross-country-championships.pdf

TRR

Has Mary Cullen raced recently?

pa4

TRR wrote: »

Has Mary Cullen raced recently?

No idea, haven't really heard much of her since the World XC. She hasn't done any XC this season anyway.. it mightn't be such a wise move selecting if she hasn't been racing.

likestosmile

TRR wrote: »

Has Mary Cullen raced recently?

On what selection grounds was Mary Cullen selected over Maria McCambridge?

runjb

Puzzling why they don't send some U23 women, even if it was top two from nationals. U23 is key if we're looking to build a women's team in the future.

The senior womens team will need a fit Mary Cullen in my opinion to grab another team medal. I assume they are going to take a chance on her and aim for that team medal. Maria McC has solid claim for that last spot and will be put in if Mary C doesn't take the line.

likestosmile

Unfair on the ladies who made the effort to take to the starting line in either Gerry Farnan or inter-counties x.c when aai select someone who didn't take part in any 2013 trials or wasn't pre-selected. Perhaps Mary has a good reason for not taking part in trials but aai should make this known &transparent.

Krusty_Clown

likestosmile wrote: »

Unfair on the ladies who made the effort to take to the starting line in either Gerry Farnan or inter-counties x.c when aai select someone who didn't take part in any 2013 trials or wasn't pre-selected. Perhaps Mary has a good reason for not taking part in trials but aai should make this known &transparent.

She did come 27th in the Worlds XC in March, beating all the Irish girls except for Britton, so she has form at this level, if not recent form. If she finishes in that kind of position again, it'll justify her selection. Maria's obviously in good form at the moment too, but has she run XC in recent years (I have no idea)?

token56

I am bitterly disappointed for Mary Mulhare (and the rest of the women obviously) that there are no U23 women being sent. I've known her and trained along side her from a very young age and she has consistently dedicated herself to athletics and trained tirelessly when she had the chance to switch to other sports where she arguably would have already represented her country at international level. To think that you win your age group at your national championships and still don't get picked to represent your country, what more can one be asked? I can only imagine how she must be feeling given the fact she will also be missing out on joining her two brothers who have also been selected, and rightly so.

average_runner

likestosmile wrote: »

Unfair on the ladies who made the effort to take to the starting line in either Gerry Farnan or inter-counties x.c when aai select someone who didn't take part in any 2013 trials or wasn't pre-selected. Perhaps Mary has a good reason for not taking part in trials but aai should make this known &transparent.

They don't have to justify their team selection to anyone. The person in charge of the team has the right to pick what he/she considers to be the best team.

Cullen was the 2nd girl home in the World XC, this alone if fit, should have her in the team.

pconn062

http://www.irishexaminer.com/sport/other-sports/britton-avoiding-limelight-to-focus-on-big-day-in-belgrade-250764.html

Gives a bit of info on Mary Cullen, seems to be struggling with a calf injury.

Krusty_Clown

Krusty_Clown wrote: »

Maria's obviously in good form at the moment too, but has she run XC in recent years (I have no idea)?

Excuse my ignorance. Maria came 6th in the inter-counties XC championships a couple of weeks back (shortly after winning Dublin), having been beaten by the other selected runners (with the exception of Mary Cullen). Hopefully she'll get to compete, as without a marathon in the legs, you'd imagine she could expect a significantly better result against the other runners.

average_runner

Krusty_Clown wrote: »

Excuse my ignorance. Maria came 6th in the inter-counties XC championships a couple of weeks back (shortly after winning Dublin), having been beaten by the other selected runners (with the exception of Mary Cullen). Hopefully she'll get to compete, as without a marathon in the legs, you'd imagine she could expect a significantly better result against the other runners.

But will the marathon still be in the legs when the Euro XC comes?

likestosmile

average_runner wrote: »

They don't have to justify their team selection to anyone. The person in charge of the team has the right to pick what he/she considers to be the best team.

Cullen was the 2nd girl home in the World XC, this alone if fit, should have her in the team.

Why hold trials then?

RayCun

likestosmile wrote: »

Why hold trials then?

To fill the remaining places on the team? Britton was always going to be selected, and apparently Cullen too, that still leaves four places.

Krusty_Clown

average_runner wrote: »

But will the marathon still be in the legs when the Euro XC comes?

She came 6th, with just 15 seconds separating 2nd place and 6th. She has until December 8th. She can only improve with every day. Anyway, it's all supposition, as she's a reserve.

average_runner

Krusty_Clown wrote: »

She came 6th, with just 15 seconds separating 2nd place and 6th. She has until December 8th. She can only improve with every day. Anyway, it's all supposition, as she's a reserve.

Maybe conditions is another reason, if the ground is good Maria could run, if heavy might be too much at this stage, maybe not.

ChickenTikka

Selection policy online at http://hp.athleticsireland.ie/images/spolicy/2013/EXC/13_EXCPolicy_100813.pdf

Following statement seems pretty clear:-

Performance Period 
3.3 Athletics Ireland has set its own period in which a performance for selection must be achieved.  Selection will be based on the performance(s) from the 1 September to 24 November 2013.

TJC

token56 wrote: »

I am bitterly disappointed for Mary Mulhare (and the rest of the women obviously) that there are no U23 women being sent. I've known her and trained along side her from a very young age and she has consistently dedicated herself to athletics and trained tirelessly when she had the chance to switch to other sports where she arguably would have already represented her country at international level. To think that you win your age group at your national championships and still don't get picked to represent your country, what more can one be asked? I can only imagine how she must be feeling given the fact she will also be missing out on joining her two brothers who have also been selected, and rightly so.

Yeah very disappointing for her. Could have at least selected her as she was the winner. To send two bros and leave a sis at home not very nice. I can't imagine the two lads are too happy with the decision either!! Plenty more big races for her to come, but as ever, aai not interested in developing younger athletes, unless they're big names..

token56

TJC wrote: »

Yeah very disappointing for her. Could have at least selected her as she was the winner. To send two bros and leave a sis at home not very nice. I can't imagine the two lads are too happy with the decision either!! Plenty more big races for her to come, but as ever, aai not interested in developing younger athletes, unless they're big names..

Absolutely. And what sort of a message does it send out to prospective athletes at this age in cross country. Knowing that even if you work hard enough to win your national championships, or medal, you might not even get the chance to represent your country when all other ages group are being represented.

Even if they felt they didn't have the strength in dept for a full team, really how much extra cost would it have been to send to top 3 at the nationals given the overall number of athletes being sent. When the decision was made what was the cost vs reward criteria they used. I would really love to know.

There is a reason there is such a disconnect between the average fun runner and the club runner, whether in cross country or other disciplines, and its the AAI. There is such an opportunity at present to tap into the growing numbers of casual runners. It's a wonderful opportunity to bring some new life in many clubs and I dont think the potential is being exploited nearly as much as it should be, and the AAI should be leading this. This is a bit of a tangent that I could on and on about but its all relevant I feel.

speedster1993

Interesting debate about the team selection here, worth a listen.
http://jumpingthegun.ie/blog/2013/11/26/euro-cross-selection-debate

RayCun

Cullen out, McCambridge in
http://www.athleticsireland.ie/content/?p=35574

pconn062

RayCun wrote: »

Cullen out, McCambridge in
http://www.athleticsireland.ie/content/?p=35574

Yikes, didn't see that coming. Nice to see Maria get a chance to race.

pa4

Just seen this on jumping the guns facebook page: ''Cullen, Sweeney and Collins out. Mccambridge, clohisey and odlum in''

pa4

Heres a link to the updated teams: http://www.athleticsireland.ie/content/wp-content/uploads/2013/11/irish_team_final_final1.pdf

5 from DSD in the junior women :eek: Some going!