National Novice - WIT Arena Dec 17th 2017

Last Sunday saw the staging of the National Novice x country in WIT, Waterford. With an untimely distracting event taking place on the Friday prior to the race our athletes could be excused for not having the best preparation. The course was made up of 1km and 1.5km laps with muddy underfoot conditions. A member of the club found themselves on the course one day in advance of the race, clearly disorientated from the previous day. He did however provide some useful information on the conditions of the course. A change to the usual route over the last few years meant athletes had a greater amount of an incline to cover. In the woman's novice, Eadaoin O'Neill ran a composed race to finish 58th and her club mate Eibhlin Clearly finished in 105th. In the men's race Kevin O'Brien was the sole club representative. Kevin, who had two day's previous raced down the isle in Waterford, found himself in the mix for an individual medal. A lead group of around 12 athletes set the early pace with Kevin placed strategically off the back of the group. As the race progressed he moved through the pack to find himself closing on 4th in the final lap, a brave move saw him overtake 4th and 3rd on the long hill. With second in his sights Kevin found himself caught on the inside of the final bend losing his stride in an extra muddy patch, this would prove disastrous as both athletes ahead of him opened a slight gap to leave Kevin finishing in 4th. A great effort from Kevin, who will now focus his efforts on the National Intermediate x county in February. He led home the Cork county team to take silver.

Results at the following link http://www.athleticsireland.ie/competition/results/

The 10th of December saw the staging of the East Cork Novice Championships in Watergrasshill. Our Woman's team consisting of Lorna Santry, Niamh O'Conner and Eibhlin Cleary took home the team gold with Lorna taking home an individual silver. Great stuff from Lorna and the ladies team.

Elsewhere on the roads a number of our athletes lined up for the Cloyne Commons race last Sunday. James McCarthy lead home Sean Mcgrath in second. Eric Meade finished inside the top ten, with Martin Hennessy, Denis McCarthy and John Walshe also representing the club.