It was touch and go right up to lunchtime on Saturday, the eve of the AAI National Inter-County and Juvenile Even Ages Cross Country Championships, one of the biggest domestic cross country fixtures in Ireland, but the course in Kilbeggan Race Course passed a final inspection with flying colours and regardless of the weather the fixture was going ahead and it was just hoped that everyone would travel safely to Kilbeggan on Sunday 22nd November. The decision prompted some wiseacres to comment that if was horses that had to run, it would be cancelled! Any fears that the awful weather would keep people away were completely unfounded as an enormous crowd gathered on the day, probably the biggest at an All-Ireland cross country in years, presenting quite a challenge to the car parking stewards to get all the cars in and safely parked. Any other venue in Ireland might have had serious problems but Kilbeggan Race Course proved to be an excellent choice of venue with firm ground providing ample car parking space and thanks to the Trojan work of the Club’s army of stewards, every car was accommodated in time for the first race at 12 noon.

1,000m girls u/12
The terrain in Kilbeggan gave excellent views of the entire course and it was quite a sight to see 154 under 12 girls head out on the 1,000m loop around to the finish, where Rachel Glennon was first girl home from Mullingar, followed closely by Adeola Ojomo-Amaka, Claire Fagan, Laura Whitelaw and Niamh Quinn and with terrific support from Ellen Cronin, Lucy McCartan, Meabh McNulty who bravely finished despite twisting an ankle half way through the race, and Emma Derham, the girls finished 2nd Club and 3rd County to put Mullingar on the scoreboard.

1,000m boys u/12
No surprise that in the 1,000m for boys u/12, it was Cormac Dalton that led the Mullingar team home with a 5th place individual finish, with Patrick Shaw back in super form close on his heels in 8th. Cormac earned a bronze medal with the Leinster team, but more importantly he and Patrick led the Mullingar team of Kevin Giles, Declan Brady, Jonah Kelly, David Mimnagh, Eoghan Gallagher and Tom Molloy to Club gold.

1,200m girls u/14
It’s not often we see Linda Conroy beaten, but in the 1,200m for girls u/14 despite a great race she had to concede with about 200m and settle for 3rd place but thanks to great support running by Edel Glennon, Caoimhe Shaw, Lorna Moody, Aisling Bracken, Lauren Casey, Victoria Harris, Aisling Moody and Faye Walsh, she led Mullingar to Club gold which made up for any disappointment and kept Mullingar in the limelight.

1,500m boys u/14
Padraig Moran is an extremely experienced athlete and no stranger to the big occasion and in the 1,500m for boys u/14, he tracked the leader all the way but when it came to the final push for the line, he was just edged out but was still delighted with his individual 2nd place finish that led Leinster to gold and the Mullingar team of Jack Reid, Oisin Quinn, Glen Gaffney, Mervyn Harris, Eoghan Moore, James O’Léannacháin and Philip Doherty to Club silver.

2,000m girls u/16
By now, many must have wondered if Mullingar could keep racking up the medals, but despite a relatively poor start by Ciara Hewson in the 2,000m for girls u/16 that saw her lying back in 30th place after 1,000m, Ciara worked her back into contention and with 500m to go let loose with a great surge that took to her 5th place and with Lorraine Daly battling home in 9th, these girls deserved their Leinster silver medals. Packing strongly behind Ciara and Lorraine were Donna Kiernan, Elizabeth Carr, Anna Ryan and Aine O’Reilly to finish 3rd Club and keep Mullingar to the fore.

3,000m boys u/16
Shane Fitzsimons took full advantage of the local venue to win in spectacular style in the 3,000m for boys u/16 and add another National title to his collection. While most eyes were on Shane up front, Thomas Lynn was having a brilliant race not far behind to finish 9th and with Shane helped Leinster to gold. Stephen Nea made his customary late surge to finish next for Mullingar, and with Ryan Blundell, David Small, Jonathan Daly, Ian McCormack and Joshua Kelly all running extremely well, the team finished 3rd Club.

5,000m boys u/18
With Jake Byrne electing to run in the Junior race, Thomas Fagan had the honour of leading the Mullingar team in the 5,000m for boys u/18 where he finished well up the field, but despite good support from David Mahon, Vincent Connolly continuing his return to full fitness after breaking a collar bone, Adam Daly, Shane Kelleher and Robert Yorke, the team was unlucky to finish out of the medals.

6,000m Junior Men
After the successes of our underage teams, all eyes turned to the Junior men’s 6,000m where Jake Byrne was competing for a place on the Ireland team at the European cross country in December. However, it was not to be Jake’s day and a little over one lap into the race he was clearly hampered by the recurrence of a recent hip injury but he gamely battled on to the end, despite finding the twists and turns of the course quite painful. On any other day Jake would have been right with the leading pack, but he’s still underage for a few more years and knows there’ll be other opportunities.

10,000m Inter-County Men
Westmeath doesn’t often field a County team in the Inter-County men’s 10,000m but last Sunday it was great to see a near full team of 11 on the start line. A notable absentee was Mark Christie due to recent illness that forced him out. However, we had Damien Bateman home from Albuquerque and he ran a great race to finish an excellent 11th place and has every reason to be extremely satisfied with his performance. Also running well over the tough 6 lap course was Tomas Navickas, followed by Paddy Kelly just getting the better of Ben Vaitkavichius, Aidan Gorry, Paddy Daly (whose daughter Annie finished a fantastic 11th running for Ballinasloe & District in the girls u/14 to win County gold and Region silver), Maurice Looby, Martin Lyons, Liam McGlynn, Colm Walsh and Keith Gorry. They didn’t expect medals in this extremely competitive competition but can be satisfied with their team performance.

By day’s end, Mullingar had won team medals in 6 of the 8 underage races, a feat that no other Club came even close to matching, proving once again that Mullingar Harriers is in a different class when it comes to cross country. Everyone take a collective bow!

Hosting a national event like the Inter-Counties and Even Ages is a massive undertaking for any Club but Mullingar is very fortunate to have so many dedicated members and supporters and friends that responded so well to the appeal for help last Sunday in particular, but also in the weeks leading up to the event getting the course ready and attending to all the other "back room" tasks that make for a successful event. Despite the pounding of 12 races, the track held up remarkably well and even though there were some muddy stretches, the ground under was still quite firm and good to run on. And this in spite of the awful weather of recent days (or is that weeks?). We were very fortunate to have had the use of Kilbeggan Race Course with its good soil and good drainage.

We wish to express our gratitude to the Westmeath Civil Defence for providing essential First Aid and ambulance cover, to Dr. Liam Dalton for giving his time to be the Medical Officer on the day, to the very many and too many to mention by name stewards who endured the odd rain shower and chilling winds for the entire day, to Denise Fulham for her beautiful rendition of the National Anthem, and particularly Paddy Dunican, Manager of Kilbeggan Race Course and the entire Committee for the use of their first class facilities. Finally, sincere thanks to the army of parents for turning out in great number to support our hugely successful Club teams.