All posts in Cross Country races

With the Nationals now only two weeks away Clonliffe athletes continue their preparations. Yesterday Jayme Rossister was 17th in the British Cross Country Challenge in Milton Keynes and Sergiu Ciobanu 13th in the Bobby Rea International Cross Country.

The rest of the mens senior and junior squad put in another solid session on the hills in Portmarnock yesterday whilst the womens teams took to the National Cross Country course in Abbotstown this morning.

Of course theres always the exception and that was Liam Roarty making his debut in the colours of Morpeth Harriers in Newcastle this morning in the Heaton Memorial 10k running a 33.14 pb.

With the National Cross Country some six weeks hence National 3000 sc champion Jayme Rossister was in action on the country today finishing 11th in the Cardiff Cross Country challenge in a pretty classy field.

Also on Saturday Philip O’Doherty was 3rd in the Ceide Fields Half Marathon in Ballycastle, Co. Mayo in 86.26.

Clonliffe’s former double national junior cross country champion Hope Saunders yesterday took her first US win. At the Emporia State Invitational Cross Country Hope running for Wichita State led from the off  winning women’s 5K with a time of 19:45.76, and she was the only competitor to run a sub-20 minute time in what were described as “brutally hot and windy” conditions.

Clonliffe made the now annual trip up North today for the IAAF Belfast International cross country. There was a new venue for today’s event the Billy McNeill centre of excellence in Belfast. A testing course featuring several long hills which were quite sapping on the legs featured on 2K lap, although the general view of the athletes was that it was a good course with good running.

Some 25 young clonliffe athletes were competing over the course of the day`s competition. First race featuring our athletes was the combined women’s Junior/ ages 17 race. This was a big test as the race also included the Celtic International with top Junior and age 17 athlete from the home international countries so it was a big step up for many of our young athletes. The girls however gave an excellent account of themselves particularly young Sarah Bateson who continues to impress with an excellent run 26th place in the age 17 race in a time of 16.48 . Aoife Hession also had an excellent run finishing 30th in 17.33 with Alana Fitzsimons only seconds behind, 32nd in 17.47 . With the competition decided on the first three home the Clonliffe girls combined excellently to finish in 3rd place in the club competition. This scoring trio were superbly backed up by Ella Brown 36th in 18.25, the fast finishing Katie Halpin 37th in 18.30 and the youngest member of the travelling party Ella Cooley 38th in 18.41. Of the junior women fine runs from the two girls Ale Fernandez 44th in 17.40 and Hannah Browne 45th in 17.57.

There was another big field assembled for the combined junior men and boys age 17 race again a great Clonliffe presence and it was a particularly gratifying to see no less than 15 black and amber vests line-up. From the starters gun Ben Guiden and Efrem Gidey got off to excellence starts, pretty soon Efrem had latched onto the lead international athletes and with a lap to go had himself up in 2nd place but with problems with his spikes he literally slipped back a couple of places and eventually finished in an excellent 4th place in 19.16. Ben suffered a bit mid race but rallied superbly to battle back to finish in 36th in 20.37 with Stephen Cashin having having yet another top run to  39th 20.42, next in was Aaron Cullen who finished in 43rd place in 21.06, considering that Aaron is only making his way back after injury this was an unexpected bonus. Great runs also by Ryan Sheridan 22.07, Ian McAlweeney 22.34 and Jordan Byrne, who was visibly carrying an injury 22.47.

Of the age 17 athletes they were most encouraging performances in particular from Callum Simpson who finished well up the field in a time of 21.10, with Evan Foster breathing down his neck 21.13. Next was Alex Murray 22.07 Niall Carbery 22.34, Dermott Buckley 22.49, John Lawrence 23.32, Alex Nuroth 23.44 and Manny Oakley 24.56.

Unfortunately the result of the junior men boys 17 inter club race is not yet to hand but again the Clonliffe teams performed superbly.

In the men’s international race Sean O’Leary who has only left the junior ranks as of January 1st stepped well and truly to the mark. Running in the Irish colours on the international under 23 team he did not look out of place and finished an excellent 16th place overall in the senior race, over 10,000m, and 2nd U/23. An excellent senior debut. Sergiu Ciobanu started the race but unfortunately a chest infection conspired against him and he had to call his day`s work to a halt after the first lap.

It was once again a most worthwhile exercise to bring these young athlete to an international cross-country event such as this. In particular for the junior men’s team represented possibly the final opportunity to impress the club captain with the team for Portugal to be selected and finalised this week. As always it was a pleasure to spend the day with these young Harriers. A fantastic bunch!

Photos: https://www.flickr.com/photos/146364500@N04/albums/72157675744562617/with/45889380425/

Clonliffe Harriers will make the annual trip up North on Saturday for the IAAF Northern Ireland international cross-country. The bus will leave Morton Stadium at 9 a.m. sharp returning on Saturday evening at approximately 7 or 8 p.m.

As has been the norm in recent years strong underage and Junior teams will run in the Clonliffe colours. The Clonliffe National junior team champions will feature strongly in the team competition. The club captain is specifically using Saturday’s race as part of the teams preparations for next month’s European junior clubs cross country championships in Portugal.

That combined u 17 and 18 teams, both boys and girls, will give a good account of themselves and will challenge strongly in the club event. Also competing will be a full junior women’s team.

Sean O’Leary will be running in the Irish colours making his u23 debut in the senior race.

The very best of luck to all our athletes and teams on Saturday.

Sean O’Leary after his outstanding eight place finish at last month’s European junior cross-country has been selected to run for Ireland in the Northern Ireland international cross-country in Belfast next weekend  Sean will run on the u23 team.

Sean will be surrounded by familiar faces up north as several clonliffe teams will also compete on the day. The men’s junior team will use the event as part of their final preparations for next month’s European club cross-country championships  The clonliffe junior team is : Efrem Gidey, Ben Guiden, Aaron Cullen ,Thomas Balthazar, Ryan Sheridan, Jordan Byrne,Ian McAlweney and Stephen Cashin.

Incorporated in the junior race is the boys 17/18 this team is Alex Murray,  Callum Simpson, Alex Neuroth, Dermot Buckley, Evan Foster, Manny Okaye, Niall Carbery.

Also competing will be a junior women’s team of Hannah Browne, Ali Fernandez Tess Loftus and Amy Warren and U17/18 team of Sarah Bateson, Ella Brown, Aoife Hession, Alana Fitzsimmons, Ella Cooley and Katie Halpin.