Revised 21 Feb. 2010

SUMMARY
Three Club gold (girls u/11, boys u/15, Novice Women)
Two County Silver (girls u/11, boys u/15)
Two individual winners (Shane Fitzsimons, Mary Scully)

Seven other top-12 finish places (Adeola Ojomo-Amaka, Meabh McNulty, Ciara Hewson, Lorraine Daly, Linda Conroy, Padraig Moran, Thomas Lynn)

Make that FOUR Club gold, THREE County silver, THREE individual winners after Glen Gaffney wins boys u/13 re-run in Feb. 2010 and leads Team to 1st Club and 2nd County DETAILS

We’ll start with the positives. At the AAI National Novice and Uneven Ages Cross Country Finals in Coleraine on Sunday 6th December, Mary Scully became the first female member of the Club to win a National senior cross country title and in so doing led the Mullingar novice women’s team to victory. The manner of her victory was inspiring, taking up the lead from early on and going into the second of two laps increased her lead with every stride to win by a sizable margin and with terrific support from Alwyn Kinane (15th), Riona Murtagh (23rd), Sarah Mescall (36th) having her best run in a long time, Sinead Roche (38th) and Breda Daly (55th) secured team gold for first Club and missed County bronze by just two points!

Earlier in the afternoon, Mullingar juvenile teams secured two Club titles, but it could have been four only for the appalling incompetence of the organisation of the juvenile races that led to the unprecedented decision to declare the results of two races null and void and to re-run them at a later date. Allied to the worst course imaginable that took the athletes out of view for most part, through muddy wooded areas with steep slippery uphill and downhill sections, with stewards in very short supply, and treacherous underfoot conditions on narrow trails and sharp corners, it’s anyone’s guess how it was managed to hold a National Championships at all. The clear lack of a "host" Club to take charge and responsibility for the event was painfully obvious very early on in the day and the AAI Officials in attendance seemed genuinely at a loss to control matters and appeared quite happy to keep confined in the main to manning the finish area.

Girls u/11
From the very moment we entered the grounds of the University of Ulster in Coleraine, what struck was the total absence of stewards to guide us to the car parks, the registration area or the course. Once at the course, things seemed to go from bad to worse as there was total confusion over the location of the start for the first race, the 800m for girls under 11. After one false start from the wrong location, the race finally got under way 15 minutes late and despite the challenge of the most ridiculously steep, long, narrow and muddy hill ever seen in a race for such young athletes, first in for Mullingar with a strong gutsy run was Adeola Ojoma-Amaka in 3rd, with Meabh McNulty on her heels in 4th to lead Mullingar to 1st Club and Westmeath to 2nd County, and the two girls also won gold medals with the winning Leinster team. Next in was Ellen Cronin in 14th and providing the vital fourth Club team score was Niamh Quinn, with support from Allanah Bate, Aoife Darby, Daria Fidgeon and Maolíosa NíLéannacháin to win medals for 2nd County.

Boys u/11
The start of the 800m for boys under 11 wasn’t much better with there appearing to be a large group getting away with a false start and then followed by the remainder of the boys among them the young Mullingar team by now some distance back and trying to catch up, hampered by the narrow muddy hill. However, Mark McCann had a terrific race in his first National final and was first to finish for Mullingar, followed by Simon Carr, Conor McHugh, Jack Moran, Jonah Kelly, Joseph Moran, Craig Clinton, Eoghan Bracken and Sam McCartan who gave their very best to compete in spite of the total confusion at the "free for all" start.

Girls u/13
Moving to the "proper" start line for the 1,000m for girls under 13 didn’t seem to help matters much as the starts continued to be extremely congested and under poor control in the absence of clearly identifiable stewards. In fact, only for the intervention of several spectators to give assistance, there would be absolutely no order at the starts at all, though unruly massed false starts continued to be the order of the day. Lucy McCartan, Rachel Glennon, Claire Fagan, Laura Whitelaw, Aisling Moody, Aisling Bracken, Faye Walsh, Emma Glynn and Hilary Harris and were victims of the poor discipline at the start and did their best but with such a poor start, this talented team that finished 2nd Club and 2nd County in the Leinster cross country finished out of the medals in the National finals, which just doesn’t seem right. In the same race, Paddy Daly’s daughter, Annie Tynan Daly, running for Ballinasloe & District AC and Connaught was 11th and though reported to be initially disappointed with her performance, on reflection will no doubt realise that a top twelve finish in a National Finals and a silver medal with the Connaught team is a terrific result and she should be very proud.

Boys u/13
The farce continued in the 1,200m for boys under 13 when Glen Gaffney led home for Mullingar with great support from Oisin Quinn, Patrick Shaw, Cormac Dalton, Kevin Giles, Mervyn Harris, Declan Brady, Philip Doherty, Ciaran Bracken and James O’Léannacháin and were certain to win Club gold only to have the race declared null and void because there were so many protests about the start.
(Boys win re-run in Feb. 2010)

Girls u/15
Things really hit a poor low when in the 1,500m for girls under 15, Mullingar were absolutely assured of gold as Ciara Hewson stormed through to finish 3rd, with Lorraine Daly in 4th, Linda Conroy 5th, followed by Donna Kiernan, Edel Glennon, Caoimhe Shaw, Elizabeth Carr, Lauren Casey, Lorna Moody and Victoria Harris only to have their delight dashed later when they learned that this race too was the subject to very vocal protest and was declared null and void and would also be re-run at a later date.

Boys u/15
Things seemed to calm down for the start of the boys 2,000m for under 15, and just as well too, as we witnessed a brilliant display by Shane Fitzsimons to win in style and with Padraig Moran finishing in 5th, Thomas Lynn in 6th, and brilliant support from Ryan Blundell, Jack Reid, Joshua Kelly and Eoghan Lynam the team richly deserved their gold medals for 1st Club and silver medals for 2nd County to give us something to cheer about for a change. Liam O’Reilly unfortunately was forced to drop out before the finish but can still take pride in being part of this great team. Shane, Padraig and Thomas also won gold medals with the winning Leinster team.

Boys u/17
With the older age groups, numbers are less and the athletes are more experienced and disciplined, so it was easier to control the starts. In the boys 4,000m for under 17, Thomas Fagan ran well and was first home for the Club with support from Adam Daly, Stephen Nea, Shane Kelleher and David Small but finished out of the medals.

Girls u/19
Rachel Yorke was part of the Leinster team in the girls 3,500 for under 19 where she ran well in the tough conditions as the course had cut up and deteriorated badly by this stage and richly deserved her silver medal with the Leinster team.

Boys u/19
In the 6,000m for boys under 19, Vincent Connolly showed that he continues to return to full fitness with a great run in which he looked much more his old self and really deserved his gold medal with the Leinster team.

Novice Men
We’ve already reported on the great win by Mary Scully and the Mullingar women’s team in the 3,000m for Novice women and by the time the men’s Novice 6,000m got underway, the course was particularly muddy but didn’t seem to bother Paddy Daly too much as he led Mullingar home, followed by Aidan Gorry, Colm Walsh, Andrew Kinane, Matt Glennon and Aidan Daly and despite not finishing in the medals, still expressed satisfaction with their performances in the challenging conditions.

Of particular concern must be the feelings of the parents of the young under 11 athletes in particular, among them parents of Mullingar athletes, who might have been experiencing their first National finals and had travelled considerable distances from the four corners of Ireland. What must they have thought of the complete shambles of an event in Coleraine, and was this the norm? To say Mullingar Club officials were embarrassed by the fiasco in an understatement, and we can only point to previous fixtures such as Adamstown, Tullamore and Kilbeggan that were properly organised and managed and passed off without incident as examples of how such events can and should be organised. One must hope that the experiences at Coleraine hasn’t lost the sport many young athletes as their parents reconsider their children’s involvement if this is the standard of organisation at a National Finals.

The AAI now needs to seriously review the whole event last week-end and learn from it and explain to its members how an event run under its auspices can turn out to be such a total shambles. This was surely the worst organisation ever at a National Cross Country Finals. If this is what a National Finals can deteriorate to, one must wonder at the future of such events?

Trying to finish on a positive note, despite the apparent "loss" of two juvenile Club titles on the day, Mullingar still won two juvenile and the Novice women’s Club titles, which are excellent results and once again reinforces the Club’s formidable reputation in cross country.

A word of thanks is due to the very many parents and others that made the long journey to Coleraine and braved the cold and wind to provide valuable support. Thankfully we didn’t get wet; wouldn’t that have been all we needed, given the frayed tempers and anger of large sections of the crowd about the day’s proceedings?

A very special word of thanks also to those parents that stayed in the hotel in Derry on Saturday night and looked after the younger juveniles, helping to make the experience of travel and staying overnight in unfamiliar surroundings before a National final a memorable one for the athletes. Your input cannot be underestimated as without it, we could not have competed in such numbers. The Club is extremely fortunate to be able to draw on such great support when required. You are to be congratulated.