Double European cross-country champion Fionnuala Britton will make her season’s debut at Sunday’s 30th anniversary Gerry Farnan Cross-Country in Dublin’s Phoenix Park.
Others rumoured to be running include Stephen Scullion of Clonliffe Harriers and Paul Pollock, who may well decide to help Annadale defend the team title they won last year. Unfortunately, Eddie McGinley, who led the Annadale team home last year, is unlikely to feature with the Airtricity Dublin Marathon a week later his main concern at the moment. Ryan McDermott, Owen Carleton and Andrew Agnew are three Annadale stalwarts likely to start. In the women’s race, Kerry Harty from Newcastle, who just missed out on a place on the Irish team last year, has returned from Font Romeu to run (and heads back to France on Monday).
Interestingly, the inaugural Gerry Farnan race of 1983 was held at Santry Woods (now Santry Demesne) behind Morton Stadium. Winner was Eamon Coghlan who earlier that summer had won the 5000m at the inaugurals World Track and Field Championships in Helsinki. Eamon was coached by Gerry Farnan who had died the previous year.
The top four finishers in both senior and junior races and the top two U23 athletes at Sunday’s races will go on to compete at the Lotto Cross in Antwerp, Belgium on November 3 where one automatic place on the Irish team in each category for the Europeans is on offer. A top eight finish in the junior and senior race at this event or a top 12 place in the senior race for an U23 athlete will nail down this place.
The remainder of the team will be selected after the Woodie’s DIY National Intercounty Cross-Country Championships at Santry on November 17 – an earlier date than usual to allow the team an extra week’s preparation. The European Championships take place in Belgrade, Serbia on December 8. As well as Fionnuala Britton going for a hat -trick of titles, the women’s team are the defending champions.
Only a top three placing in the senior and junior races will guarantee selection, with the selectors also free to consider good form by Irish college athletes in the USA. One athlete who has ruled himself out is track specialist Ciarán Ó Lionaird, who hasn’t got over the Achilles injury which ruled him out of competition all summer.
Last year, Ava Hutchinson of DSD won the Intercounty women’s race on a rough, muddy course at Ratoath, with Lizzie Lee of Leevale second and Sarah McCormack of Clonliffe third. Joe Sweeney of DSD, who is making his marathon debut in Dublin on October 28, won the men’s race, followed by Michael Mulhare of Portlaoise and Rathfarnham’s Sean Hehir, another athlete concentrating on the marathon at the moment.
With her coach Chris Jones, now also the Athletics Ireland national endurance coach, Britton has just returned from an Irish squad camp at altitude in Font Romeu, France. Among the other athletes at the camp were Kerry Harty of Newcastle and Sarah McCormack of Clonliffe, who is based in Scotland.
* At the World Masters Athletics Championships in Brazil, Mary Barrett from Loughrea AC has won a bronze medal in the W55 shot to add to the heptathlon bronze she won yesterday. Barrett threw an excellent 10.60m, with Lucy Moore-Fox of DSD throwing 8.96 for 11th place. Geraldine Finnegan from Dunleer was second in the W45 heptathlon title, while Evelyn McNelis was 5th in the W65 8km cross-country. Also on the Irish team are Anne Gormley, Dorothy McLennan, Ernest Caffrey, Patsy Forbes and Peter O’Sullivan.
No comments yet.