Thick fog that took some time to clear greeted the Mullingar athletes that travelled to Antrim on Saturday  23rd January for the International Cross Country, which was held on a fine course though with soft underfoot conditions in some places and once again we had some outstanding performances from all Club members, with close finishes and individual and team prizes, in spite of running the considerably longer UK cross country race distances. The opposition included athletes from England, Scotland and Wales plus all the top Irish clubs.

In the minor race for girls, Edel Glennon had a terrific run to finish 8th and with great support running from Aisling Moody, Niamh Quinn and Adeola Ojomo-Amaka, led the team to 3rd place. Of interest is that Paddy Daly’s daughter, Annie Tynan-Daly was 2nd in the same race, leading her Ballinasloe & District AC team to a convincing win.

The minor boys race was extremely close where we saw Jack Reid run the race of his life in 3rd place, behind two Scottish athletes, and just a few seconds off silver. Here surely is a future International athlete. Close behind him came Glen Gaffney (9th) and Cormac Dalton (11th) finishing strongly, and with great support from Oisin Quinn, Michael Moran and Philip Doherty the boys easily won the team prize.

Linda Conroy continued the run of good performances with an impressive 3rd place finish in the junior girls race where she ran her best race of the cross country season so far, having to concede to the very good Scottish Champion. Elizabeth Carr also showed a good return to form with a solid race.

The junior boys race was the closest of the day and a real thriller, with just seconds separating the first 4 over the line. For Padraig Moran it was his finest ever race and he was pleased with his 4th place finish. He is fast developing into a top class athlete and improving with every race. The same can be said of Ryan Blundell, one of the most improved athletes in the Club, and behind him finishing very strong was Eoin Lynam and they were unlucky to finish just out of the team prizes.

The girls u/17 race, which incorporated the Celtic International Cross Country, was run in conjunction with the under 20 race and covered a much longer distance and gave us a chance to cheer for Mullingar and Ireland as Ciara Hewson and Lorraine Daly were in action on the Ireland team. Ciara had a fine run coming through the field on the second lap and finished full of running and played her part in helping Ireland to team bronze. Unfortunately, Lorraine took ill during the race when in a good position and had to drop out, which is the first time this has ever happened to her.

The boys u/17 international race saw Shane Fitzsimons get a severe cramp early in the race and he wisely chose to drop out, but Thomas Lynn had a great race and fully deserved his International selection. Thomas Fagan also had his best race for some time with a very fluid piece of running. Also competing were Adam Daly and Jonathan Daly who ran well in a very tough race and helped Mullingar to 4th team place.

Vincent Connolly found the going tough in the Junior men race but battled on to finish well up. In the master men race, Ben Vaitkavichius easily won his category when finishing 10th overall and with excellent support running from Matt Glennon, Paddy Daly, Liam McGlynn and Kieran Nolan, led Mullingar to 3rd team prize.

However, probably the performance of the day belonged to Mary Scully in the women’s race, which was a combination open, masters and elite International race. The race was won by Mary Cullen and had athletes of the calibre of European Champion Hayley Yelling and Fionnuala Britton running, but Mary was not overawed and finished 5th Irish woman, a superb performance and won her master category with ease. Alwyn Kinane more than justified her selection on the Leinster team with Mary and also had a good run.

All in all, it was great day for Mullingar Harriers and as always our athletes were brilliantly supported throughout the day by a good group of parents and others that travelled in support and enjoyed the venue, facilities and races. Many thanks to them.