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Well with a storm approaching it can only mean one thing. Yes, it’s cross country time!  Sunday sees the Dublin Novice Cross Country Championships in the Phoenix Park starting after round 2 of the Dublin Juvenile Cross Country league. There are two good teams representing the club racing on Sunday and both should feature at the sharp end of proceedings.

Women’s team: Hannah Browne, Alannah Cooley, Clodagh Galvin, Yvonne McDonagh, Elaine McLaughlin and Laura Tuite.

Men’s team: Scott Crowley, Patrick Hayes, Efrem Gidey, Paul Keenan, Peter Bisset, Jarlaith Jordan, Niall Sherlock, Daniel Lacey, Ryan Sheridan, Stephen Cashin, Greg Hosseney.

Car parking: Papal Cross area, do not park on grass verges or where no parking cones are sited. You may return to find your car clamped or towed away!

Timetable: Novice women (4,000m) 1.45pm, Novice men (6,000m) 2.15pm.

The move is underway. With meticulous planning the tent team of Harkness, Bateson and Cooper got smartly from Santry to the National Cross Country course and before darkness fell mission accomplished. Ready for action tomorrow.

Please note that juvenile training is cancelled tomorrow.

Good luck to our teams tomorrow: U/14, 16 and 18 boys, U/16 and 18 girls, junior women and men and senior men. Nil desperandum.

Yesterday in Madison, Wisconsin Australia`s Morgan McDonald won the NCAA Cross Country title for the Wisconsin Badgers. Clonliffe Harrier Mick Byrne is the head coach at Wisconsin and is Morgan`s coach.

(pictured, Morgan McDonald wins NCAA XC 17th Nov, 2018)

(pictured, Morgan McDonald no. 6, 2nd Morton Mile 12th July 2017)

In furtherance of the Clonliffe connection members may well recall Morgan, attired with bushy beard,  finishing 2nd in the 2017 Morton Mile. He redshirted the 2017 campaign envisioning winning the NCAA individual title on his home turf at the Thomas Zimmer Championship Course during his last year of eligibility.

Everything he and The Prince hoped for worked to a dream yesterday as  McDonald pulled away from top-ranked Grant Fisher of Stanford down the stretch to win the NCAA championship with the home crowd going absolutely wild.

“As soon as we thought that we might be hosting nationals when I was a sophomore, maybe even a freshman, this is something that we knew down the line might be an option,” said McDonald. “This was 100 percent the reason. This and we thought the team could be a bit better. It was all centered around this 2018 nationals held in Madison with a Badger crowd. It was all about that.”

“We decided at that time, that we would put all of our focus into today,” Wisconsin coach Mick Byrne said. “He started training May 1. To go through six months of training, as the months passed by, just mounting up to just trying to win this at home in front of this amazing crowd.

“I don’t think I’ve ever seen an NCAA crowd like this. The numbers I don’t know, but incredible event. To do it at home is just amazing.”

Congratulations from all here in Santry.

Incorporated into today’s Irwin Cup over 6,000m was the 2018 Clonliffe Harriers club cross country championship at Santry Demesne. The rain of yesterday continuing into today but it was still a grand day for the country with good underfoot conditions.

Some 50 starters took to the line for this great club event. The Irwin Cup is held in great esteem by the Harriers remembering a great Clonliffe athlete and, fittingly with this weekend being the 100th anniversary of the ending of the Great War, a war hero. Bertie Irwin was a Clonliffe national mile, 4 mile and cross country champion, 1920 Olympian and had been an aviator in the first world war. It was therefore fantastic to have such a turn out today.

The club championship for the Harry Cooney Cup, presented to the club a number of years ago by the family of the late former Clonliffe great, was one by one of the club’s fantastic crop of junior athletes, the 2018 All Ireland school’s champion, Efrem Gidey in 19.07. 2nd was Adam O’Brien who 6 days earlier was 6th scorer on the Clonliffe senior team that won the Dublin cross country and brought home the Padraig Keane cup, in memory of yet another Clonliffe legend, with Sean Carrig getting back to form a solid 3rd place.

The 2018 women’s champion for the Fred Connolly Trophy was another young athlete Alannah Cooley (24.13) with Aimee Ahern 2nd and Clodagh Moriarty 3rd.

Thanks to the officials and athletes for today. The results of the Irwin Cup to follow.

Clonliffe Harriers play host to the Dublin Cross Country Championships this Sunday November 4^th in Santry Demesne with Championship races for juvenile athletes from U/9 to U/19, junior athletes and senior athletes. The programme gets underway at 11 a.m. with the U/9 girls. The juvenile programme will then run as far as U/17 boys at 12.55 p.m. and then at 1.15 p.m. will see the U/19s incorporated with the juniors and then the senior races with the senior women racing over 6000m at 2.15 p.m. and then the senior men over 10,000m at 2.45 p.m.

A few important notes for all competitors and spectators:

Car-parking: Competitors and spectators are specifically requested to park within the confines of Morton Stadium. Fingal County Council who own Santry Demesne and allow the event to take place specifically request that no event parking take place in the park itself.  The park is used by local people and people from further afield at weekends and Fingal are anxious not to interfere with their normal enjoyment of the park.  If the stadium is full please be careful where you park as illegally parked cars in the Santry area may well be ticketed and removed by the authorities.

Track: the track in Morton Stadium is absolutely out of bounds for all cross country competitors. No warmups are permitted on the track or in the infield and any encroachment on the track is specifically prohibited by order of Morton Stadium.   Morton Stadium are kind enough to allow the facility to be used as a base for the cross country and we appeal, therefore, to clubs and coaches to tell athletes in their charge not to encroach onto the track. Anyone encroaching onto the track with cross country spikes will do irreparable damage to the track surface.

Litter: thanks to the co-operation of Fingal County Council we have use of the park. All clubs are requested, therefore, to remove all litter from the park post event.  Failure to do so will mean that the volunteers who will be on site from 8 a.m. erecting the course will then be there after dark cleaning up your athlete’s rubbish.  Not the most pleasant of tasks and certainly not fair on the hard working volunteers.  Clubs are requested please to do the right thing.

Members of the course building team are requested to assemble at 8 a.m. Clonliffe then have a requirement for volunteers to marshal the course.  Please note that the people who would normally look after this will be looking after teams on the day so, therefore, the club needs others to step into the breach.  Club members who are available are please requested to contact Noel Guiden on 087 9599 888.  Marathon runners maybe you will not be running on Sunday and you can make yourself available from 10.30 a.m.  Likewise parents of juvenile athletes please you might consider making yourself available for a few hours on Sunday.  Anyone available please report to the Clonliffe clubhouse for assignment of duties at 10.30 a.m. but please do contact Noel Guiden on 087 9599 888 by text in advance with your name and the time you will be available from.

Timetable: 2018 DublinXCtimetable

Course map: Map Dublin Uneven Ages, Junior & Senior Cross Country Championships 2018

It’s looking like a quiet day as the Dublin City Marathon tomorrow takes centre stage. So far the only Clonliffe athlete to race this weekend was Sean Doran who placed 11th in the Leinster Novice Cross Country held in Navan. Updates if any later.