Race Report Written By Stephen Willoughby
7 of our Club Members took part in the Dublin Airport Athletics Club Cross Country Race which took place in ALSAA, Saturday 10th March 2012.

Conditions underfoot were very un ALSAA like, as no mud and no spikes required, although was quite windy.

First up over 2 Miles were the Ladies and Sandra Armstrong ran her usual strong race finishing 6th overall and second in her age category. Sandra was also part of the Hospital Ladies A Team who finished 2nd so another productive day out for Sandra.
Men’s race was over 5 Miles with Paul O’Connell first home in 6th place overall, which is some achievement as in his role as Chairman of the BHAA most of his warm up time is spent making sure Registration is running smoothly and finishing area set up correctly with new Chip Timing now in place.

Good runs also by Brian Conway, Philip Kerr and the usual minute separated Killian McMorrow, Ray Carpenter and Stephen Willoughby.

A special mention for Michael Cunningham who was not happy just distributing the Terenure 5 Mile Flyers, was also able to help with the buttering of brack at the same time, now that is talent.

[blockquote]The Terenure 5 Mile race launch took place this past Tuesday. The event was a great success. Below you can reada summary of events from the press release put out by Special Olympics Ireland. Also a few Sporstworld athletes had pictures taken with  Kenneth Quig, Breda Doyle and Ethan Browne  who train with the Special Olympics team[/blockquote]

At the launch on 6^th March, Mr. Paddy Lynch, Chairperson of Sportsworld Running Club welcomed attendees and introduced guest speakers, Mr. Maurice Redmond, Chairperson of Special Olympics Eastern Region, Mr. Patrick Nally, Director of Marketing, RSA & Ms. Lucinda Creighton TD, Minister for European Affairs.

Mr. Redmond expressed his delight and gratitude to the race organising committee for choosing Special Olympics Eastern region as the charity partner.

Mr. Nally highlighted his delight at RSA’s involvement as Premier Sponsor for the race and  hopes to see many of his colleagues participate on race day.

Ms. Creighton gave her endorsement to the race and expressed her delight at the manner in which the local community, businesses and local residents alike have embraced this event.  Lucinda has given her commitment to support the race by signing up to participate in it on 13^th May.

press release of launch

Thanks to Killian McMorrow for this race report from Maynooth

Away from the glamour of the ‘Ballycotton 10’, Sportsworld runners continued to glide through the mud, at the Business Houses race in Maynooth College on saturday last. Sandra Armstrong stole the show with a sprint finish that saw her secure fourth in the Womens race. Over 4 miles, Nigel Burke (61st) was best, with Garret McGrath (86th) and Brian Conway (87th) not far behind. There were strong showings too from Aodh O’Connor and Philiph Kerr.Killian McMorrow, Conor Kenny and Stephen Willoughby all performed respectably, to get in at or under the half hour. Thanks due to Tommy Armstrong and Dermot Bates for the support.

Race report from Tony Ryan from Ballycotton

A sunny, if a little cool and windy, day greeted the participants of the 35^th annual Ballycotton 10 road race, held in the East Cork town on Sunday 4^th March. A sizeable contingent of Sportsworld runners and supporters made the trek to the rebel county to test themselves on this “classic race at a classic distance”. The route starts with a two mile stretch out of the town, largely flat and downhill, followed by a fairly flat loop of approx 4 miles, and finishes with the starting 2 mile stretch back into the town, where runners need to dig in to tackle the incline. Over 2,600 runners completed the race, with Clonliffe Harriers’ Sergiu Ciobanu romping home to victory again with over a minute to spare in a time of 49.20. The first lady home was Letterkenny’s Maria McCambridge who came home in a time of 54.48, which compares favourably to the 1985 winning time of 56.00 set by our very own Emily Dowling.

First Sportsworld runner home on the day was Conor Butler, who took the first team spot from Kieran Foley in the last half mile. Results (gun time, not chip time) for the 13 Sportsworld RC runners below.

Despite the picture for this post, the sun shone brightly on a mild late February day for the 2012 National inter club cross country championships today. There was very little to be found. Whilst we didn’t have a ladies team taking part this year we had a strong mens team, with 7 runners. Always run at a fast pace, this race hurts pretty much from the start with 12K over 7+ laps of Santry Demesne to contend with.

It takes allot of experience and concentration to keep the focus around the whole course. No better man than Phil to lead the team home finishing very strongly in 43rd position. Finishing anywhere inside the top 50 in a race with such a high caliber field is a credit to the club and Phil. Our only other man to sneak under the 40 minute mark was Paul Duffy who also ran a great race, getting his pacing bang on. Paul O’Connell was 3rd Sportsworld scorer, followed by Karol who recovered well after some time out with the flu. It was a close battle between Ed, Michael and Gareth for the remaining places.

It was great to be running close to home on a familiar course. No more mud 🙂 It’s onto the summer now 🙂 with the national road relays and national 10K to look forward to in April.

Full results below. Well done to everyone who ran for the club in XC this season.

43 34 Kilgannon, Phil Sportsworld A.C. 38.59
55 33 Duffy, Paul Sportsworld A.C. 39.39
65 32 O’Connell, Paul Sportsworld A.C. 40.30
78 36 Cronin, Karol Sportsworld A.C. 41.11
84 37 Murran, Gareth Sportsworld A.C. 41.43
89 35 Cunningham, Michael Sportsworld A.C. 42.02
92 38 Mc Entee, Ed Sportsworld A.C. 42.09

Team finished 10th. Retaining our A league standard.

There was a reasonable turn out from the club at the BHAA Garda cross country race in the Phoenix Park on Saturday. It was a fairly windy morning as the ladies faced a 2 mile course and the guys a nice 4 mile route.

In the ladies event Stephanie came home in 5th position with Erin following up in 11th with Breada and Aileen Melody (1st in here age category!) closing out the sportsworld ladies.

In the men’s race Phil lead home in 9th position. Brian Conway is holding all the xc bragging rights ATM. Phillip Kerr, Conor Kenny, Ray Carpenter and Stephen Willoughby were the other club runners.

Full results are online at http://bhaa.ie/members/app/event/index/tag/garda2012. The next event is the AIB/NUI cross country in Maynooth.

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 !!

Jean Wilson lead the ladies field of 75 home at the 2 mile BHAA Eircom cross country race in Cherryfield park last Saturday. There was a large turn out from the club with Erin O’Connell, Sandra Armstrong and Breada Browne also running on the morning.

In the mens 5 mile race Sportsworld were represented by Karol Cronin, Brian Conway, Philip Kerr, Nigel Burke, Ray Carpenter and Conor Kenny. There were some complaints about the wind on the day The next BHAA race is the North County Farmers race in Swords on Saturday Feb 4th at 11am.

The website is looking for members to write race reports to ensure the content of the site is up to date.

The Leinster Senior Cross Country Championships was held on the 15 January in a cold but dry Hurley grounds of StSenans in Kilmacow Kilkenny. The ground was good with lots of twists and turns to make the course interesting and one killer hill to make it hard. The girls were up first on the 5km course with some top names in the field. The club race of the day belonged to Jean Wilson who battled the entire race to say up with the leading pack and came in a brilliant 4th place. The rest of the team followed close behind and even though there was stiff competition in the team event and some of the top team members where missing the girls still claimed first place.

The men were up next for the 10Km race with five sprints up the hill required. From the first corner it was clear though Raheny Shamrocks came to do business with 4 of their runners ending up in the top 5 and a team total of 13 confirmed it. Each of the Sportsworld team had their own battles through the race and ended up with a respectable 4th. Again there were two or three team members missing with work and injury but with new cross country runners like Damien Kelly racing we had a full team representing the club.

StSenans made improvements to the course adding wood chips to inclines and declines making it a lot safer and a bit easier, and with Leinster Athletics even having the results on line with photos the next day it shows improvements can be made when there are people willing to do it.

Sportsworld ladies team Leinster Senior champions
Jean Wilson 4th
Lucy Darcy 15th
Stephanie Bergan 17th
Helen White 19th
Ciara Foster 22nd

Mens team 4th
Phil Kilgannon 16th
Paul O Connell 25th
Paul Duffy 29th
Michael Cunningham 32nd
Damien Kelly 46th