County Masters XC Champions - November 3rd, 2022

County Masters XC:
The County Masters was held in Carrignavar on Sunday in very wet and mucky conditions.
The mens team race was a very close affair with a lot changing during the race but luckily as the dust settled we just snuck the win and retained our title beating Leevale by 2 points and The Barrs by 3. Kevin, still a spring chicken in the Masters ranks, was 2nd overall behind race winner Donal Coakley. Brian Harty had a fine run showing the months of training in his legs with a 5th place and was battling for the podium for a long spell. Chris Kelly continued his good form too with another strong showing for 9th. Stephen O'Brien was well up in contention for a top 10 but a bad fall at the Fairmont Hairpin caused an issue with his DRS in the last lap. He did enough to secure the team medals with a 23rd place finish and was the sole link between the winning team from 2021 and 2022.

Kevin won individual Silver in M35, Brian Bronze in M40 and Chris Bronze in M35. Eric had a battle for the M55 title with John Cashman of Midleton, in the end Eric had to settle for Bronze. Denis was 7th in the M55 race.

Fiona had a powerful run blowing away the field for a comfortable win in the women's 4k event. Avril edged out Christine by 4 seconds for 14th over all with Christine just behind in 16th. Unfortunately we were one short for the team.

Congrats to Carrignavar in organising another great event. The only grumblings that people had was that the business plying it's trade during the event did not offer free refreshments to the gold medal winning athletes...

Road Racing:
Well done to Kenneth and Chris on completing the Dublin marathon on Sunday too. Kenneth after a stint out injured was not at his fittest but still ran a very impressive 2.49 for 187th overall. Chris knocked a big 16 minutes off his Cork time for a superb 3.30. Well done both.

Eadaoin ran in the Battersea 5k in London on Saturday and was 2nd lady in 20.17. Great to see her coming back into form for the pointy end of the XC season.

AGM:
We had the club AGM last week. Thanks to those who turned up on the night and thanks to Rooskagh Coffee for providing the catering. The main updates are the new club captains. Annelise is the Ladies Captain and Stephen is the Mens Captain. Best of luck to both for the coming year. 

Up Next:
The next race up on the calendar is the Munster Senior XC in Limerick Racecourse on Sunday. It seems our A team are saving themselves for the Nationals in Donegal so we will see what the B team can come up with on the day. Best of luck to all running.