Clonliffe club cross country c`ships/Irwin Cup

Saturday next November 29th will be a great Clonliffe club day as the annual club cross country championships for Juveniles, juniors and seniors take place in conjunction with the final round of the 2014 Grand Prix Series in Santry Demesne.

The proceedings will get underway at 11.00am when the Juvenile championships start. There will be championships races for athletes in two year bands over fairly short distances, however, with recent rain the conditions will be sticky underfoot.

At 12.00 noon the Irwin Cup takes place and this will include not only the Grand Prix race but also the club junior/senior championships over 6,000m. The Club Cross Country champion will be presented with the Harry Cooney Cup.

The Irwin Cup itself is an historic Clonliffe club race. It`s origins date back to 1910, when the then quarter century old Clonliffe Harriers introduced a new race to the club calendar “the Grand National”, a 6 mile handicap cross country race, the winner that first year was C.G. Wisdom with the Scratch man T.J. Downing recording a time of 33 minutes and 5 seconds for the then six mile race. The race was held on an annual basis and in 1932 it became the Irwin Cup in memory of Carmichael Irwin a great Clonliffe athlete who a member of the RAF, was captain of the Airship R. 101, which tragically crashed on its maiden voyage at Beauvais, France on the 5th of October 1930 killing Carmichael Irwin and all the crew and occupants of the airship.

Carmichael Irwin was a Clonliffe Olympian representing Great Britain in the 1920 Antwerp Olympic Games in the 5,000m. He finished second in his heat in a time of 15.17.8 qualifying for the Olympic final where he finished 12th. He was National Cross Country Champion in 1914, becoming  the second Clonliffe athlete to win the National as he lead Clonliffe to our 2nd team title. In 1921 he was Irish 1 Mile and 4 Mile champion with a mile PB of 4.33.6 and 3 mile PB of 15.15.6.

Saturday`s Irwin Cup brings the curtain down on a great 2014 Grand Prix Series. The Grand Prix Presentation night  will be held on Thursday December 4th, which will include a 3k track race at 8.00pm. The top ten in the Grand prix, adjusted for the best ten races so far is as follows

Richard Case
Dermot    Kelly
Shane Casey
Sinead Smith
Thomas Sherlock
Mary Harte
Liam Hennessy
Sean Doran
Rachel Wisdom
Clodagh Moriarty
Trevor Wisdom

All club members are encouraged to take part in Saturday`s championships either by running or officiating. It should be a great club day in Santry.