Jan 24, 2010 [Noel Guiden] Several of our athletes travelled north yesterday for The Antrim International Cross country held in Greenmount Campus, in particular the Clonliffe Junior Squad who were out to impress Joe Cooper with the race being used by Joe to assist him finalise the Junior team for the European Clubs Cross country in Bilbao on February 7th.
Conditions where ideal for cross country, with the mist and fog lifting for the junior race. The course also received acclaim with the early part of the lap on playing fields, a trail section through the woods, and a nice muddy field to contend with over the 1.8k lap. From the start of the junior race held over 5.6k Jayme Rossister wearing the white singlet of Leinster moved into the top third of the pack while further back the whole Clonliffe squad were in a tight bunch, by lap two Ian Guiden had bolted from the Clonliffe pack and opened a gap followed by Eric McCann, also in the Leinster white singlet. At the end of lap three Jamye finished 17th (19:09), Ian 22nd (19:47) Eric 27th (20:09), however, the rest of the Clonliffe pack were still together battling it out among themselves Jordan Logue 28th (20:15), Conor McGuinness 29th (20:18), Fintan Doherty 30th (20:18) and Mark McKenzie 31st (20:19), further back Graham Mahon, not a fan of the mud, battled it out finishing 38th (21:36) with Larry Brady on his shoulder same time 39th. Excellent performances and giving Joe plenty of food for thought to mull over the next few hours.
In the women`s Race, won in fine style by Mary Cullen (18:45) Becky Woods running in the Ireland singlet in the Celtic U/23 International ran superbly 27th overall, 5th in the U/23 International and 1st of the Irish U/23s.
Finally in the senor men`s international won by Mike Kiegen (KEN) a good battle took place between Clonliffe men Michael McDiarmada and new comer Lorcan Cronin, with Lorcan prevailing placing 34th (32:30) with Michael 40th in 33:03.