131 D’ARCY, Lucy – 01:01:54 (5th Place!!!)
203 GREENSMYTH, William – 01:04:47
274 HORGAN, Kathleen – 01:06:41
282 O’BRIEN, Eoin – 01:06:47
457 WILLOUGHBY, Stephen – 01:10:03
499 MCMORROW, Patrick Killian – 01:10:41
625 McMORROW, Enda – 01:12:59
694 HIGGINS, Ann – 01:13:23
831 LLOYD, Trevor – 01:15:50
1043 MCGANN, Ruth – 01:18:34
1154 LLOYD, Judith – 01:20:10
1347 MELODY, Aileen – 01:23:19
1691 COSGRAVE, Derry – 01:28:24
1826 MCGANN, Tony – 01:30:33

Full Results: http://www.ballycottonrunning.com/FullResult20091.htm

By Michael Cunningham

Last Sunday saw the official end to the 2008-2009 cross country season, for some it was pay off for a lot of hard work and for others running up hills in the rain and muck wasn’t the only pain they experienced. Even though a lot of the races involved giving up their Sundays (apparently a day of rest) and travelling to the hilliest, recently cow inhabited back field down the country, every race had a full women and men’s team.

The teams where made up of race veterans some of whom where able to make it on to Dublin or Meath teams and new club members who enjoyed the experience of representing the club at Novice to Senior and Dublin to National level for the first time. Below are some of the success stories of the year but more importantly thanks to new and old club members coming forward the club was represented in the team event in each of the races.

Dublin Novice
28th Sept 2008, Phoenix Park
Sportsworld Ladies Team 3rd Crona Brady, Louise Bruton, Susan McDonnell, Claire O Reilly

Dublin Intermediate
12th Oct 2008, Tymon Park
Sportsworld ladies Team 3rd Adele Madigan, Crona Brady, Ciara Foster, Claire O Reilly
3rd place Adele Madigan

Dublin Senior
2nd Nov 2008, St Annes Park
Sportsworld ladies Team 2nd Aoife Brady, Eimear Martin, Rachel Morgan, Mary Finn
5th Aoife Brady,
7th Eimear Martin

Under 18’s Inter County
23rd Nov 2008, Tramore Waterford
Sean Wall Gold medal Dublin team

Leinster Novice and Masters
26th Oct 2008, Avondale
Sportsworld ladies Master Team 2nd Rachael Morgan, Helen White, Kathleen O’Callagan
5th Crona Brady
11th Ronan Merrick

Leinster Intermediate
9th Nov 2008, Heywood
Sportsworld ladies Team 1st Aoife Brady, Crona Brady, Stephine Bergen, Lisa Dowling
1st Aoife Brady

Leinster Senior
18th Jan 2009, Tymon Park
Sportsworld mens Team 4th Phil Kilgannon, Ed McEntee, Ronan Merrick, Paul Duffy
Phil Kilgannon Gold medal Dublin Team
Sportsworld ladies Team 2nd Aoife Brady, Lucy Darcy, Rachel Morgan, Stephine Bergin
Aoife Brady and Lucy Darcy Silver medals Meath Team

National Intermediate and National Masters
15th Feb 2009, Tymon Park
Sportsworld Ladies Team 1st Aoife Brady, Crona Brady, Mary Finn, Adel Madigan
1st place Aoife Brady
Sportsworld ladies Masters Team 1st Lucy Darcy, Rachel Morgan, Helen White, Kathleen O’Callagan

National Senior
1st Mar 2009, Santry
7th Aoife Brady
Sportsworld mens Team 3rd Phil Kilgannon, Paul O Connell, Ed McEntee, Paul Duffy

All of the above I’m sure would give a big thanks to all of the supporters who came out to the races especially those with hangovers who still somehow managed to shout the runners on.

Race Report: IMRA Trooperstown Hill 28/02/09
By William Greensmyth

Trying to justify participation in mountain running to those who have never scrambled up hill and sprinted down dale is difficult. You are often confronted with dubious looks, concerns over your mental well-being and queries into whether you have sufficient health cover. ‘Tis true – mountain running attracts a different breed of running animal…none of your cheetahs who whip around the track nor your gazelles who stride over the cross country plain, thank thee very much.

And so on Saturday last, 28 February, seven of our club’s true troops trooped to Trooperstown Hill and the longest race of the IMRA winter league.

At 10,600 metres and with an ascent of almost 400m, this was no fun run. At the start line, it was clear that the national senior XC hadn’t reduced the calibre of the field as many of the leading competitors were present and correct. Following a run-through of the course from Rene, off we went.

The first 4k was a long gradual climb with a few steep sections thrown in for good measure. Lungs wheezing, legs burning, hearts breaking, after 4k there was a brief respite and a chance to stretch the legs and show off a bit of speed on the comfortable downhill section for about 2k before digging in again as we ran through marsh and over scree up to the top of the second hill around the 8k.

Then we came to the main downhill section, what the IMRA fiends called a “technical descent”…I can assure you, dear reader, the technique employed by my good self was simply award-winning.

Scrambling down the slope with the sure-footedness that a drunken three-legged blind hippo would be proud of, rueing the day Newton discovered gravity and cursing Eoin O’Brien and his suggestion that this would be a bit of fun and good preparation for Ballycotton, technique went out the window and survival instincts kicked in.

The IMRA website warns that this final descent has a -26% descent grade. Being more concerned with descending without shattered ankles, I did not have time en route to indulge in some amateur trigonometry and verify this angle. I shall take it as accurate.

Once at the bottom of this section, it was free running all the way to the end and the chance to gain a few places.

Results? Who cares – we all finished and without injuries. Fair play to my fellow mountain goats – Paul, Jakub, James, Colm, Eoin and Liam.

All aboard for the Wicklow Way Ultra 🙂

Classy Runner

Within the last 2 weeks Aoife Brady has proved to be a fantastic all-round athlete. First of on 8th February 2009. We had the Irish Indoor championships. Aoife ran in the 1500m but unfortunately just missed out on the medals and finish in fourth place. The following day Aoife ran the 3,000m and collected a Bronze medal. This is Sportsworld first indoor track medal and we are very proud of Aoife. The following week we all headed over to Tymon Park for the Cross County Championships. Aoife continued to put in a brilliant preformance when running the Intermediate 4,000m. Aoife took an early lead, she held the lead and finish very stongly winning herself a gold medal for individual section. Well Done Aoife.

Also in the Indoors we had Crona Brady who ran in the 800m and finish in a great time of 2.25.42. Well done Crona. Crona has improved greatly this year and seems to be following in her sister footsteps. So watch out for this name ha.

Sportsworld had a fantastic day out in Tymon park bringing medals home left right and centre. Check out the results below.

Woodies DIY Cross County Championships 15/02/09

Master Men 7,000m
Charlie O’Connell had a great run and finished in at time of 41.57.

Intermediate Men
Ed McEntee 44th place time of 36.03,Ronan Merrick 47th 36.06,Paul Duffy 57th place time 36.53,Michael Cunningham 72th place time 37.40, Kieran Lynch 87th place time of 38.59, Paul Mitchell place 97th time of 40.33. This race was highly competitive with the winner Sean Hehir Rathfarnham in a time of 32.14.

Master Women 4,000m
Lucy Darcy 7th place time of 15.27, Rachel Morgan place 9th time of 15.40, Helen White place 25th time 16.33, Kathleen Horgan (o/w o’Callaghan) place 32nd time 16.58, Aideen Downes (welcome back) place 43th time 17.24, Breda Browne place 70th time 19.04, Anna Delaney place 76 time 19.48, Kim Musada place 85th time of 20.49. Sportsworld won a gold medal in team section. Well done to Lucy who scored on the Meath team who won Bronze medal.

Intermediate Women 4,000m
Aoife Brady place 1st time 15.08, Crona Brady (huge improvement this year) place 11th time 16.18, Mary Finn place 15th time 16.21, Edel Madigan place 19th time 16.38, Stephanie Bergin place 20th time 16.39 (well done very close for medaling) Lorna Quinn place 23rd time 16.49, Louise Bruton place 50th time 16.49, Orla Jordan place 51th time 18.32, Orlagh Fleming place 54th time 19.13. Sportsworld won gold over all in the team section. Edel and Mary also were on the Dublin team and Dublin won gold so well done girls.

Well done to all, great running. Keep up all the hard training.

MEET & TRAIN
TYMON PARK
1st FEB 2009
SPORTSWORLD PLACES

1st > Stephanie Bergin. / 2nd > Edel Madigan.
7th > Breda Browne./ 9th > Louise Bruton.
12th > Orla Jordan./14th > Catherine O’Neill.
17th > Ann Higgins. / 23rd > Eileen Dalton .
25th > Orlagh Fleming / 26th > Susan McDonnell.
27th > Fiona McManus. / 28th > Irene O’Connor.
30th > Sibeal Waldron. / 33rd > Louise Courell.
38th > Aileen Melody / 40th > Karen O’Connor.
45th > Clare Doyle / 47th > Tara Quirke.
48th > Kim Masuda / 49th > Mary Dawson.
51st > Clare Rowley / 53rd > Claire Harrington.
62nd > Laurence Delair / 66th > Petrina Mulroe.
72nd > Ann Sweeney / 76 > Yvonne Callis

Online entry for the Sportsworld 5 mile Classic 2009 are now open. The race is on Sunday May 17th at 10am.

Sportsworld Running Club was founded in 1983 and is based in Bushy Park, Terenure. Over the years it has developed into one of the biggest running clubs in Ireland with a current membership of over 200 men and women. In its short history it has had remarkable success winning National, Dublin and Eastern Region titles in both men and women’s categories.

In 1985 the club organised the very first Dublin 5 Mile Classic and since then the event has gone from strength to strength and is now established as one of the premier road races of the Irish Athletics calendar. Sportsworld are proud to be the promoter of this great event which has attracted many of the worlds leading runners to our capital city culminating in Ismael Kiruis’ World best time of 22:07 set in 1993. At the same time, we make sure the needs of the fun runner and walkers are not forgotten.

Awards
First 1000 participants will receive a beautifully designed race T-shirt and a unique Asics gift.
Prizes
A large prize fund will be distributed among the first ten senior male and female runners, as well as all the usual Masters categories (o/40 to o/65).
Charity
Any profits arising from the race will be shared with Our Lady’s Hospital for Sick Children in Crumlin. We would also request race entrants, if intending to raise monies for charity through their race participation, to consider raising funds for the hospital.

National Novice Cross Country, Ballyheise, 7 December 2008

And so to it, the last cross country endeavour for 2008. Following the harrowing experiences of Avondale and Abbeyleix, Ballyheise in the heart of Cavan was the location selected to host the National Novice XC.

Arriving at the arena in Ballyheise, we were confronted by a biting cold in the air and the sight of little kids bawling their eyes out, others with icepacks strapped to ankles and even one poor misfortunate being stretchered out with a neck brace and oxygen mask. It was clear we were a long long way from La Santa.

Sean Wall was the first of the Sportsworld participants to face the course. In the Under-19 race, a gruelling 6k race, in which young Waller admirably held his own, stepping up an age class to compete.

The ladies’ novice race was the next to feature Sportsworld runners. At a distance of 3k, this race went off with a ferocious pace around the course and the Sportsworld team quickly got into their stride. Lorna Quinn, Mary Finn, Crona Brady, Stephanie Bergin and debutante Catherine O’Neill all put in strong performances. Both Lorna and Stephanie also ran on the Dublin side while Crona wore the green and gold of Meath.

The men’s novice race was the last race of the day. The Sportsworld team of Ronan Merrick, Ed McEntee, Michael Cunningham, Colin Bolger, Paul Duffy, Paul Mitchell and Will Greensmyth faced into six laps of the course, by now well churned with knee-deep mud after the previous races. The Sportsworld gents dug deep and got around with some exceptional performances. Worthy of particular note is that of Ronan Merrick whose top form this season continued with a strong run to lead home the Sportsworld team, a performance benefitting perhaps from the extra sleep Mr Merrick gained from his alarm not waking him on time that morning. Colin Bolger returned to cross country racing with a fine run while Paul Mitchell in his first season of cross country running proved himself to be fully competent at conquering the hills of Cavan.

The last cross country race of 2008 behind us then as we take a brief sojourn over the Christmas season to recover. More cross country pleasures await in January and February…I can’t wait.
Report by

William Greensmyth

Women – 3,000 metres
Lorna Quinn brought our Novice ladies team home in 12th place and a time of 13.44, next in 13th place Mary Finn time of 13.50, Stephanie Bergin time of 14.06 and Crona Brady time 14.15 well done ladies, Great running.

Men – 6,000
Ronan Merrick led sportsworld mens team home in a time of 25.32, followed by Colm Bolger 25.44, Michael Cunningham 25.47, Ed McEntee 25.54, Paul Duffy 27.19, Paul Mitchell 27.28, Will Greensmyth (Welcome back from injury) 28.50.

Well done to all

Senior Women Tramore on 23/11/08 8,000 meters
Well done to Aoife Brady who ran a fantastic race to finish in 17th place in a time of 32.17. Aoife also score 2nd place for the Meath Team. Well done Aoife great run in a highly competitive race.

Boys under 16 – 3,000 meters.
Sean Wall is still surprising us all he finished in 31st place and was the fourth scorer on the Dublin Team. Well done Sean, very proud.

Report By
Orlagh Fleming