10th January 2011 - Results and Fixtures

Leinster Cross Country Silver for Tullamore Women

The club made the long journey down to Kilmacow in South Kilkenny last Sunday for the Leinster Senior Cross Country Championships. First up was the women’s race over a distance of 5000 metres. Liz Cuskelly was always up with the leading group and ran on well to finish in ninth place. Liz was well supported by Evelyn Herlihy in 19th place, Michelle Mullaney 20th and Mary Daly 22nd which earned the girls second place in the club competition behind Sportsworld. This quartet also combined to win silver medals for the Offaly team, with Meath emerging as winners. Other Tullamore athletes competing on the day were Rita Daly 23rd, Martina Conlon 26th and Alma Ravenhill 27th.

Our Men’s team placed fourth in the County event and fifth in the club competition. The men were led home in the 10k race by Noel Kelly in a fine seventh place. Next to finish for the club was Dave Fox who ran his best race to date to place 27th followed by Brendan Abbot in 38th. Other Tullamore placings were 44th Dave Gorry, 51st Glen Finlay, 52nd Pat Conlon, 53rd Ger Lynam and 57th Brendan Kennedy.

Full Results :
Men’s 10000 metres: 7 Noel Kelly 31.31 ; 27 Dave Fox 34.14 ; 38 Brendan Abbot 35.33 ; 44 David Gorry 36.44 ; 51 Glen Finlay 38.07 ; 52 Pat Conlon 38.10 ; 53 Ger Lynam 38.18 ; 57 Brendan Kennedy 44.06.
Women’s 5000 metres : 9 Liz Cuskelly 17.05 ; 19 Evelyn Herlihy 18.37 ; 20 Michelle Mullaney 18.42 ; 22 Mary Daly 19.39 ; 23 Rita Daly 19.56 ; 26 Martina Conlon 21.01 ; 27 Alma Ravenhill 21.02.

News Roundup
The Newtownforbes 5k road race which had to be rescheduled from its usual St Stephen’s day date because of bad weather went ahead last Sunday. Pauline Curley was the first woman home in a time of 18.15. Jody O’Reilly ran a fine race to finish in third place overall in a fast 17.27.

In the Dublin Business Houses cross country race run by South Dublin County Council which was held in Tymon Park, Declan Fahey had a fine run over the four mile distance to finish in third place. Declan clocked a time of 23.44. Tony McCormack finished in 64th place in 27.58 while John Todd who has been out of action due to injury since last June finished in 86th place overall and was first home in the over 60 category in a time of 29.04.

Leinster Star Awards
The Annual Leinster Athletic Awards took place last Friday night in the Seven Oaks Hotel in Carlow. The Offaly Senior award went to Joseph Mulligan who had another great year in the throwing events, winning numerous championship medals in the process.

The Dew Award for the most successful Junior and U 23 club in Leinster went to Tullamore Harriers and was a well deserved accolade for this talented and dedicated group of athletes.

Charleville Estate Hosts National Cross Country Championships
After the disappointment of having to postpone the original fixture in December due to snow, the All Ireland Cross Country Championships finally return to Tullamore after a lapse of forty years. On the 16th January at 11.30am in Charleville Estate the Novice and Uneven Ages Cross Country National Championships take place. Between adult and juvenile competitors almost forty club athletes will compete and hopes of medals are high.

Our athletes had trained hard for the original date, and since it was cancelled have had to tailor their training so as to be in good shape for these championships.

Liam Brady, Maire Triona O’Connor, Declan Fahey, Catch Grennan and John Harkin all harbour strong hopes of been in the shake up for individual medals while both our women and men’s teams have strength in depth so as to be hopeful of strong showings in the team events.

Our Juvenile members will be well represented and have prepared well for this event and we wish them the best of luck on the day.

For anyone interested in watching cross country at its best, Charleville Estate is the place to be this Sunday, so come on up on and lend your support to the local runners. The racing starts at 11.30 with the Juveniles on first followed by Junior U 19 events and then the novice women and men.

Fixtures :
January 16th : National Novice and Juvenile Cross Country Championships in Charleville Estate, Tullamore.
January 23rd : National Masters Indoors in Nenagh.
January 30th : Leinster Junior, Senior and Masters Indoor track and Field championships in Nenagh.
February 6th : National Intermediate and Masters Cross Country Championships in Alsaa. 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

Membership is now due. Forms available in clubhouse.