A brief live report from Albufeira, Portugal: The Clonliffe team of 5 performed admirably at today’s European’s Club’s Cross Country. Unfortunately 2012 London Olympian Mark Kenneally had failed to recover sufficiently from injury and accordingly was not in a position to make the trip to these Championships. Nevertheless the team of 5 put in very solid performances.
Three time Olympian Alistair Cragg found the sharp hills and tight bends caused him back difficulties nevertheless he put in a gutsy shift to lead the team home in 21st place. Alistair was followed home by Sergiu Ciobanu 34th, Gary O’Hanlon 49th, Jayme Rossiter 51st and Colm Rooney 65th.
When the points were totted it was revealed that the Clonliffe Men had placed 9th. A pleasing performance all round.
Mention must be made of young Jayme Rossiter running in his first senior European Championship, Jayme back in 2010 had ran on the Clonliffe junior team in Bilbao, in Northern Spain and today became the first Clonliffe athlete to run in the European Clubs Cross Country on both Junior and Senior teams. An excellent debut at this level for Jayme as he finished in a most credible 51st, 4th scorer.
Full report on the race and the weekend’s activities will be posted on Tuesday.