The National Inter County Cross Country Championships were held in Tuam, Co.Galway on Sunday the 14th of February 2016. The numbers attending however were pretty poor and were in marked contrast to the National Inter Clubs Cross Country Championships held in Santry last November.
Here is a comparison...
Inter County (Feb 2016) in Green // Inter Club (Nov 2015) in Orange
37 Senior Men...2 County Teams // 160 Senior Men...20 Club teams
18 Senior Women...2 County Teams // 80 Senior Women...9 club teams
13 Junior Men...2 County Teams // 81 Junior Men...10 club teams
11 Junior Women...2 County Teams // 50 Junior Women...7 club teams
As you can see, there were no Bronze team medals awarded in the County competition because there wasn't any third teams........and this was a national competition. There is probably a very good case to just have the inter county and inter clubs all rolled up into one race in November and hold it somewhere near Dublin.
Cork....From a Cork point of view, there was hardly anyone there representing the second largest county in terms of club membership. Donal Coakley of Leevale AC who goes to nearly every cross country race was there and Brian McMahon who is running with a Dublin club but representing Cork was there. That was it...two men from Cork....and six were needed to make up a county team.
There were no representatives from Cork in the Senior Women, Junior Men or Junior Women's races.
County Results...
Senior Men1 Galway 2, 11, 13, 14, 15, 19...74 pts
2 Donegal 7, 16, 18, 22, 30, 37...130 pts
Senior Women
1 Galway 2, 4, 8, 11...25 pts
2 Kerry 1, 5, 7, 14...27 pts
Results....Senior Men......Senior Women.....Junior Men....Junior Women
The highlight was the Championships from a 'local' point of view was the performance of the Kerry team. Shona Heaslip of An Ríocht AC won the senior women's race leading the Kerry team to a Silver medal.
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| Shona Heaslip of An Ríocjt AC winning the senior womens race. ...Photo: Andrew Talbot |
The other members of the Kerry team were...
5th Karina Tehan St.Finbarrs AC
7th Niamh O'Sullivan An Riocht A.C.
14th Niamh Clifford Star of the Laune A.C.
16th Mary O'Connor An Riocht A.C
Looking at some of the photos, it's obvious that the Galway Athletics County Board went to a lot of effort staging this championships. It's just a pity that most of the other counties couldn't be bothered sending teams.
Video clip of the mens race from Padraic Burke...