Sunday 8th November saw the Leinster Intermediate Cross Country hosted by Tullamore Harriers in Tullamore, County Offaly.
Sportsworld were represented in the men’s race. Some of us were led to believe that we were running an 8km race, but we were taken back when we reached the field to be informed it was 10km made up of 5 laps. Hoping that underfoot conditions might be ok, we weren’t long finding out that the course was flooded in one corner and the rest was the near resemblance of a field vacated after the national ploughing championships with 3 hills to tackle 5 times thrown in to make it more enjoyable.
The race took off at a steady pace led by eventual winner Tom Hogan of Slaney Olympic. Sportsworld were led out by the excellent Micheal Cunningham, Paul Duffy and Ronan Merrick, followed closely by Mark Dunne, Paul Mitchell and Liam Mc Fadden.
Lap one was the greatest test for all, seeing was it safer to take a 30 metre detour to avoid the small lake in the bottom corner of the course or dive straight in and hope to make it out the other side with spikes still on. Gladly we all took the dive and made it trough. After that it was a case of settling in and trying to make moves on the leader board.
Sportsworld were unlucky not to come away with a team bronze medal for all their hard effort eventually finishing 4th placed team.
Overall Results
1 Tom Hogan 34.20 (Slaney Olympic)
18 Michael Cunningham 38.19
24 Paul Duffy 38.50
27 Ronan Merrick 39.10
30 Paul Mitchell 40.15
32 Mark Dunne 40.33
40 Liam Mc Fadden 42.21
Report by
Liam Mc Fadden recovering from ‘trench foot’ has supplied this report.
