Update 12 October 2011: Photos on the way...
We expect to have our photos uploaded in the coming days, thank you very much for your patience. We would like to take this opportunity to thank all the athletes who competed at AB Travel Ballyfin Junior-Cross 2011. We would also like to thank all the coaches and spectators. Thank you too to all the Ballyfin AC volunteers who organised and stewarded the event. Finally, a special thank you to each of our sponsors: AB Travel, Physio Plus, Donncha Phelan, and Kyle Cleaning.
Update 9 October 2011: Mulhare and Tobin emerge victorious at AB Travel Ballyfin Junior-Cross 2011
Mary Mulhare and Sean Tobin were the stars of the day in Emo Court on Saturday, taking their respective AB Travel Ballyfin Junior-Cross titles in style. With fine weather and good underfoot conditions, spectators were treated to two very fast races and plenty of entertainment.
A very competitive field assembled for the Under-20 Ladies 2,600-metre race with Dunshaughlin’s Shauna Moore doing much of the work in the early stages. Local girl, Mary Mulhare, Mary-Ann O’Sullivan of Tinryland and Shiobhra O’Flaherty of St Laurence O’Toole’s kept in close contact and made up the leading group. Moore, running barefoot, led this group for the first mile and all four athletes were still very much in contention. As they started into their final 1-kilometre lap, Mulhare took up the running in a bid to regain the title that she relinquished last year. With 600 metres to go, Mary started to see some reward for her efforts as herself and ongoing rival O’Sullivan broke away going into the final hill. Having run a very controlled race, O’Sullivan looked well poised to make a decisive move. Mulhare, however, was not to be denied and showed real class as she turned up the pace and powered home, taking the win with five seconds to spare.
Moore finished strongly but had to settle for third after almost closing the gap between herself and O’Sullivan. O’Flaherty held fourth spot while Raheny’s Alice Fennell took fifth. Imogen Cotter of Ennis Track was just behind in sixth place despite having lost a shoe in the early battles for position. In the team competition, Raheny Shamrock came out on top over Celtic DCH in a hard fought contest, with North Laois taking third.
Having witnessed such drama in the ladies race, expectations were high when the Under-20 Men took off in their four-lap, 4,000-metre race. The race set off at a hectic pace with pre-race favourites Liam Brady of Tullamore and Sean Tobin of Clonmel immediately to the fore. The young man from Clonmel set out his stall early and always looked a likely winner. Before long, Brady and Mullingar’s Vinny Connolly found themselves struggling to hang on to the unrelenting pace. Further back, Laois man, Stephen Lawlor was running strongly in fourth position ahead of Conor Rochford of St Senans.
Tobin continued to widen his lead as others suffered from the fast opening laps. He went on to record a very impressive victory and will be one to watch in the coming cross country season. Brady held onto second place, but Connolly had to settle for fourth when Lawlor of St Abbans caught him after a remarkably well judged race. Rochford took fifth, holding off a late challenge from St Laurence O’Toole’s Daniel Lawler.
Results:
U20 Ladies - 2600m
1 Mary Mulhare, North Laois 9:32
2 Mary-Ann O’Sullivan, Tinryland 9:37
3 Shauna Moore, Dunshaughlin 9:39
4 Shiobhra O'Flaherty, St Laurence O'Toole 9:46
5 Alice Fennell, Raheny 9:50
6 Imogen Cotter, Ennis Track 9:51
Team:
1. Raheny Shamrock 23pts (5, 7, 11) – Alice Fennell, Chloe Doran, Orla Manley
2. Celtic DCH 27pts (8, 9, 10) – Heather Loughleed, Sinead Cronin, Siobhan McGinley
3. North Laois 34pts (1, 16, 17) – Mary Mulhare, Aoife Campion, Anna Healy
U20 Men - 4000m
1 Sean Tobin, Clonmel 12:25
2 Liam Brady, Tullamore Harriers 12:44
3 Stephen Lawlor, St Abbans 12:47
4 Vinny Connolly, Mullingar Harriers 13:06
5 Conor Rochford, St Senans 13:14
6 Daniel Lawler, St Laurence O'Toole 13:16
Team:
1. North Laois 31pts (7, 8, 16) – Chris Finn, David Mulhare, Sean Culliton
2. Donore Harriers 34pts (9, 12, 13) – Darragh Fitzgibbon, Max Van Haeften, Sam Allen
3. Raheny Shamrock 60pts (15, 22, 23) – Adam Foley, Ronan Kenny, Jake Grogan
Update 7 October 2011: Important note regarding multiple teams in U20 races
Note: Where a club wishes to enter more than one team, the second team must be declared at registration beforehand.
Update 6 October 2011: Kyle Cleaning sponsor team prize
We would like to extend our thanks to Kyle Cleaning who are kindly sponsoring the 2nd place team prize in the Under-20 Ladies race. For more prize details, click here.
Update 5 October 2011: Event details
AB Travel Ballyfin Junior-Cross 2011 takes place in Emo Court, Co. Laois on Saturday 8 October at 11:30am (see here for map).
The first race (U-11 Girls 600m) is at 11:55am. The U-20 Ladies race is at 1pm. The U-20 Mens race is at 1:20pm. See here.
There is a team event (3-to-score) in the U-20 races. There are cash prizes for the top 3 teams in the U-20 races (details here).
Parking spaces close to the course are limited, so please arrive early to allow time for parking and making your way to the course.
All athletes should register for their race at least 30 minutes before it is due to begin.
Update 4 October 2011: Directions and parking details added
Check out our Location page to get directions to the venue and parking information.
Update 3 October 2011: Less than a week to AB Travel Ballyfin Junior-Cross 2011
Dromore's Ryan McDermott is currently suffering from tendinitis in the knee and will not be able to participate in the Under-20 Mens race. However, despite this unfortunate news, we are confident of a strong race with international athlete Vinny Connolly of Mullingar ready to battle with Brady and Tobin next Saturday.
Update 27 September 2011: Physio Plus give a helping hand...
The top ladies team in Emo next week will take home 90 EUR cash courtesy of our kind sponsor Physio Plus.
Update 26 September 2011: Donncha Phelan, Osteopath sponsors top mens team prize
The 90 EUR cash prize offered to the winning mens team of 3 will be very generously sponsored by Donncha Phelan, Osteopath.
Update 20 September 2011: European Youth Olympian Tobin joins Brady and McDermott
Clonmel AC's Sean Tobin will join fellow National Champions Liam Brady and Ryan McDermott in Emo Court for the Under-20 Mens race on Saturday 8 October.
Update 18 September 2011: Imogen Cotter joins growing Junior-Cross field...
Profiles of the top athletes already confirmed for AB Travel Ballyfin Junior-Cross 2011, including our latest confirmation, national junior 5000m champion Imogen Cotter (Ennis Track), can be viewed here: Ladies/Men.
Update 17 September 2011: Mulhare to join O'Sullivan, Moore and McGinley on the starting line
Mary Mulhare (North Laois AC) is the latest addition to what promises to be a very strong women's field. With three of last year's top six already confirmed along with Shauna Moore and Siobhan McGinley this looks set to be a cracking race.
We are happy to announce that we have reduced our entry fee for our U-20 races - the fee this year will be 7 Euro and can be paid on the day. The entry fee for the U-11, U-13 and U-15 events will be 3 Euro.
Our team competition in the U-20 races will be 3-to-score with the winning team taking home 90 Euro and the 2nd and 3rd placed teams taking 60 Euro. More race info and prize details can be found here.
Update 4 September 2011: Top-class fields beginning to take shape...
Early entrants for the U-20 women's race include: Mary-Ann O'Sullivan (Tinryland), Shauna Moore (Dunshaughlin), and Siobhan McGinley (Celtic DCH). The U-20 men's race looks very promising also, with top athletes Liam Brady (Tullamore) and Ryan McDermott (Dromore) already confirmed. Keep an eye on our profile pages (Ladies/Men) for details of who to watch out for!
We also plan to continue with our 3-to-score team competition as normal this year. We'll try to get exact details up here as soon as possible.
The third running of AB Travel Ballyfin Junior Cross will take place in Emo Court, Co. Laois on Saturday 8th October 2011. The previous two editions of the event have seen some of Ireland’s best cross country runners take part with the event being the leading preparation race for the inter-county championships held in November. This year’s event will be held later than usual which should increase the standard further. Once again, this year’s event will include juvenile races as well as the junior showpiece races.
The previous women’s races have been won by Mary Mulhare and Ciara Hewson. Mulhare went on to make the Irish team for the European Cross Country Championships after her 2009 win while Hewson was 2nd in the under 16 All-Ireland championships after last year’s win. This year’s event will include last year’s 4th place finisher Mary-Ann O’Sullivan of Tinryland A.C. and Celtic DCH’s Siobhan McGinley. O’Sullivan went on to win last year’s under 19 national cross country title and was second in this year’s Irish schools cross country and All-Ireland junior 800m championships. McGinley is the current under 18 All-Ireland steeplechase champion and was third in the All-Ireland junior 1500m.
The 2009 men’s event was won by John Travers with Paul Robinson second. The two have continued their progress and are among Ireland’s most promising young athletes. Last year, Jake Byrne took the honours ahead of Liam Brady. Their positions were reversed when the pair took the top two spots at the under 19 All-Ireland cross country championships. Since then, Brady went on to qualify for the 10,000 metre race at the European Junior track and field championships this summer while Byrne has obtained an athletics scholarship to Iona College in America.
Individual prizes have been increased this year as well as extended to the top six in each race.
AB Travel Ballyfin Junior-Cross 2011
AB Travel Ballyfin Junior-Cross 2011 will take place in Emo Court, Co. Laois on Saturday 8 October. Thanks to our generous event sponsor, AB Travel, we have been able to extend our prize fund to include the top 6 in both under-20 races. We have also raised all our individual cash prizes for 2011.
For the past two years, this event has attracted many of the biggest names in the cross country scene. Past competitors include Paul Robinson, Brian Kelly, John Travers, Mary Mulhare, Tekea Gebrezgi, and Mary-Ann O'Sullivan. This year we hope to add some more top names to this impressive list.
The course, in the idyllic setting of Emo Court, has been used to host numerous county championships in the past and has proven time and time again to be a perfect venue for cross country running. The junior men will race over 4000m with the women covering 2600m. This year’s event also includes juvenile races catering for under 11, 13 and 15 boys and under 11 and 13 girls.
Prize details for the U-20 races are as follows:
1st - Eur 110
2nd - Eur 60
3rd - Eur 35
4th - Eur 30
5th - Eur 25
6th - Eur 20
Race distances:
U-20 Ladies 2600m (Born 1998, 1997, 1996, 1995, 1994, 1993, 1992)
U-20 Men 4000m (Born 1996, 1995, 1994, 1993, 1992)
U-11 Girls 600m (Born 2002, 2001)
U-11 Boys 600m (Born 2002, 2001)
U-13 Girls 1000m (Born 2000, 1999)
U-13 Boys 1000m (Born 2000, 1999)
U-15 Boys 1600m (Born 1998, 1997)
Further information can be obtained from race director Cormac Fitzpatrick at 086-8366561 or info@ballyfincrosscountry.com