Race Report Written By Stephen Willoughby
On the 05/02/2012 Sportsworld were represented by nearly 30 club members who made the trip to Lough Key Forest Park, Roscommon to take part in the National Masters & Internediate Cross Country Championships.
The Club very kindly organised a mini bus for the majority travelling which was very enjoyable banter on the way down until we saw how muddy those running in the under age races were and after walking the course, banter was soon replaced with silence.
It is very difficult to describe the underfoot conditions, muddy, testing, heavy all come to mind as well as a few others but expletives I believe not allowed in race reports.
Thanks to all those that successfully erected the Club Gazebo which acted as our meeting point, baggage drop, race number pick up, motivational zone.
After Emily’s words of encouragement ringing in their ears, the Masters Women were first up over 4K with Jean Wilson finishing 2nd in her age category. Jean however could not count towards the Team Score but Lucy, Helen, Rachel and Sandra were up to the challenge winning the Team Gold. They were closely followed home by Aideen and Sandra Gowran minus one of her spikes for most of the race.
The Masters Men 7K were next up but the standard in both the Over 40 and Over 50 category is very competitive Nationally so we were always going to struggle to feature in the Medals. No Medals but still good runs by Ed, Martin, Oliver, Ronan, Nigel, Joe, Anthony, Paul, Philip, Ray, Killian in the conditions.
The Intermediate Womens Race over 4K again was very competitive with Caitriona, Ciara, Stephanie, Ruth, Natalia all running very well but just missing a Team Medal finishing 4th.
The last race on the day was the Intermediate Mens Race over 10K which must have felt like a Half Marathon so again we were not in the Medals but all the guys, Michael, Paul, Karol, Gareth should be proud of their 6th place Team Position.
I have forgotten a few names which I apologise for as full results are still not available at the time of writing this report but you all know who you are and all should be very proud of representing your club to the best of your ability on what was a very testing day for all.
A special thanks to Emily and Myles Nugent for all their support and words of encouragement throughout the day.
Looking forward already to next year !!
