County Senior XC Success

County Senior XC:
The 100th county senior XC was held in Carrigadrohid last Sunday and again the weather was glorious, warm and sunny in start contrast to the rain from the day before. The course was in great condition and the organising committee had a different course set up again which keeps the venue interesting every time a XC race is held there.

High level it was a carbon copy of the 2022 race. Michael wins, Paul battles valiantly for 2nd, Tim settles for bronze and we win the team from Leevale. The 2023 race did have Tony Forristal stepping in for Frank to match his 5th from last year.

The race started slowly with a large pack together for the first two of six 1500m laps. This year notably the race was reduced to 9000m to be in line with new National and European XC distances. Tim felt the pace was too slack at 3k and went to the front to push things along. Michael, Paul and Gavin O'Rourke went with him and a large chasing pack formed. Tim grinded the pace along for the middle part of the race and dropped Gavin leaving the three main protagonists together again. Paul took a turn at the front but they lads stayed together until 7k, where Michael put a fierce burst on that sealed the race. He opened up a 20 second lead on Paul and cruised home to retain his title from 2022. Not bad for a recently turned 43 year old. Tim was about 15 seconds behind Paul for a comfortable 3rd place. Paul was also first U23 finisher.

Tony lead the chasing pack for a while before putting the foot down and putting a substantial gap on them in the middle of the race which he held right to the end for a very good 5th place and sealed the team title once again for East Cork. James was next home in 16th. John, the East Cork Novice champ, was 30th and 2nd U-23 with the great man Denis completing his 41st County Senior championship in 40th. Well done to all.

History:
This was the clubs 22nd county Senior title since our first in 1985. We have had 26 different club member contribute to scoring teams in the 22 wins (Up till 1995 it was 6 to count on a team). Donnacha leading the way with an enormous haul of 15. On the other end of the spectrum Tony has now joined club heavyweights such as Kevin and Frank O'Brien and Paul Mulholland on 1! Michael retain his title to move ahead of Liam and Garreth Barry on individual wins. Tim is still ahead of him with 3 and Donnacha again is the class apart on 6. More detail in the chart below.

Radisson Blu BHAA:
Well done to Elaine, Niamh and Avril who all ran the BHAA 5k on Sunday morning. Elaine was 3rd overall in 19.32, Niamh just behind in 5th in 19.53 with Avril in 7th with 21.03.

Up Next:
Up on Sunday is the County Novice XC in Bandon. We have teams entered in both the mens and womens so best of luck to all.