8th November 2009 - Results and Fixtures

Great Day for Harriers in Charleville Estate

Last Sunday Tullamore Harriers hosted the Leinster Juvenile and Intermediate Cross Country Championships. After weeks of preparation and a lot of heavy rain,Sunday turned out to be a lovely sunny day and Charleville Estate where the Championships were held looked beautiful in the winter sunshine. As the national anthem was been played prior to the racing one could feel a sense of expectation that this was going to be a good day. And so it proved to be with our Intermediate men and women continuing on the earlier success of our juvenile members.
First up were the intermediate women run over 4000 metres on a very heavy course and here, Maire Triona O’Connor was always up with the leading group and as the race progressed it developed into a head to head battle between Maire Triona and Mullingar’s Mary Scully.Willed on by a vocal home support Maire Triona ran a great race but could not shake off Scully and with three hundred metres Scully made her move and pulled away from Maire Triona who battled on to finish a brilliant second place. Rose Masterson also ran very well and finished 10th while Mary Daly and Georgina Touhey packed well for the team in 22nd and 23rd respectively.

Una Mullen completed the Tullamore scoring in 38th place.

Tullamore took second place in the team competition.

The mens race was run over 10000 metres and consisted of five grueling laps. John Harkin and Catch Grennan settled in to the race in the leading group. Harkin moved into third place and showed great strength to hold his form and maintain this position to the finish and was very happy to secure the bronze medal. His closest rival for third place was clubmate Catch Grennan who battled hard but just could not get up to Harkin. However it was still another great run from Grennan and earned him fourth place.

Declan Madden and Eddie Garry worked together throughout the race and both had great runs with Madden finishing in 20th place and clubmate Garry a close up 21st. When the points were added up the Tullamore team of Harkin, Grennan, Madden and Garry combined to record a great win in the club competition with a total of 48 points with Mullingar second with 58 points. This quartet were joined by Ferbane athlete Stephen Mckeigue and Tullamore’s Anthony Rickard to finish second in the county event on 88 points just behind the winners Meath on 86 points.

This concluded the day’s proceedings and great credit must go to all the competing athletes and all the members who helped out to make this a very successful day all round. The club would also like to thank the Civil Defence and Dr.Ray Cambell and his team for their help on the day.

Results
Womens 4000 metres : 2 Maire Triona O’Connor 15.53 ; 10 Rose Masterson 17.05 ; 22 Mary Daly 17.59 ; 23 Georgina Touhey 17.59 ; 38 Una Mullen 21.17.

Club Results St Abbans 51 ; 2 Tullamore Harriers 57 ; 3 Donore 63.

Offaly 4th County.

Mens 10000 metres : 3 John Harkin 35.47 ; 4 Catch Grennan 36.13 ; 14 Stephen McKeigue ( Ferbane A.C ) 37.46 ; 20 Declan Madden 38.26 ; 21 Eddie Garry 38.30 ; 26 Anthony Rickard 39.07 ; 34 Pat Conlon 41.13 ; 43 Seamus O Conghaile 43.50 ; 45 Maurice Fitzgerald 46.54 ; 46 Richie Faulkner 47.16.

Club Results : 1 Tullamore Harriers 48 ; 2 Mullingar Harriers 58 ; 3 Sli Cualann 71.

County : 1 Meath 86 ; 2 Offaly 88 ; 3 Westmeath 116.

News Roundup :
Martin Carroll competed last Saturday in the European Prison Officer’s Cross Country Championships which were held this year in the Curragh ,Kildare. Martin was the best placed Irishman in 13th place overall and was the winner of the over 50 category.

Jim Langan competed in the second leg of the Killarney 5k road series which was switched to a different course because of flooding on the roads. On a tougher course than the original Jim clocked a time of 21.53 and he was first in the over 65 category.

Fixtures.
November 15th : International Masters Cross Country, Birmingham.
November 22nd : National Inter Counties Cross Country in Kilbeggan, Westmeath.
November 26th : Winter League round 1. 3k track and tarmac.7pm
November 29th Winter League round 2. Cross Country in Charleville.
December 6th : National Novice Cross Country.
December 10th. Winter League round 3. 3k Tarmac. 7pm.
December 13th : European Cross Country Championships, Santry, Dublin.

Training: Tuesday and Thursday at 6.30pm, Sunday morning at 8.30am Except on a race day. New members always welcome.

With the dark evenings now here it is important to be seen on the roads so reflective gear must be worn while training on the roads.