Flying High and Landing Long in ALSAA and Abbotstown

21/2/2017

Karl Fahy

Major congratulations should go to Adam McMullen who has now successfully held the national indoor senior men’s long jump title for 5 consecutive years. His winning jump of 7.59m was not as far as he has jumped in the previous 2 years in defending his title, but then he had a significant margin of half a metre on his strongest rival on Sunday at the new indoor arena at Abbotstown. Whilst no other national titles were won by Crusaders over the weekend, there were some sterling efforts on display. Mary Horgan managed to get into the 800m final as a fastest loser in the heats and came in 6th in a super time of 2:13:17. Alix Hughes competed in both the shot put where she placed 8th with a throw of 9.21m and in the 60mH, and, with a time of 9:58, taking 7th position in a strong field. James Kelly placed 5th in the shot put with a throw of 13.66m and, finally, after qualifying for the 800m final on Saturday in respectively 2nd place and as a fastest qualifier in their heat, Kevin Woods and Kieron Sexton found the going tough in the tactical final. Both athletes recorded times slower than their qualifying heat, but still managed to run 1:58:26 and 2:01:07 to place 6th and 8th respectively.

Alan Sheehy made a trip to Armagh midweek to witness the 2th running of the men’s international 5K there and also participate in the men’s 3K. In order to qualify for the Armagh 5k race, each athlete had to be capable of running under 17 minutes and of the 170 odd who ran on the night it was incredible that 80 of the athletes from all over Ireland, the UK, Europe and the USA ran 15:00 or under (a new record for the event) with almost a dead heat for 1st place which was won by Englishman Ben Connor in 13:55, just missing the course record by 1 second. On the same course, which is not totally flat and involves a 1km loop with a slight drag on each lap, not noticeable initially, but becoming so over time, Alan ran an excellent 10:15, still, surprisingly, only good enough to put him in 86th place in a field of 169 runners.

It would have been good to report on the BHAA XC results from ALSAA at the weekend, where Karl Fahy won the mixed 5 mile event after several attempts in previous races and Fiona narrowly missed out on a podium place in the women’s two mile race, but the narrative and detail will have to wait until the results are published, hopefully later in the week. We do know that the women's race had some 30 competitors including Fiona, Dee Ni Chearbhaill, Lisa Shine and Susan Walsh, whilst the longer race involved at least Karl, Ger Forde, Karl Walsh, Frank Hague, Tom Dunne, Mike McGovern, Robbie Moore and Brendan Glynn in quite a large field.

Over the weekend Kris Ryan and Leo Lundy took on the “last one standing” ultra-marathon in Castleward. The event took place on a hilly, muddy and technical 4.2 mile loop around the national trust estate near Strangford in Co Down, famous for its stately home with both Georgian and Edwardian architecture, and more recently as the film location for Winterfell in Game Of thrones. Starting at midday on Saturday, competitors had 1 hour to finish the lap or be eliminated from the event. If the runner was not eliminated he or she then a choice either to retire or to go out for another lap starting on the hour every hour. 155 runners started the race at noon and there was continual attrition; by the time night fell only half the field was left. Leo reported that he found himself in trouble initially after 40 miles, struggling with stiffness and cold during the enforced stops between laps. Even so, he then struggled onto to complete 13 laps or 54.6 miles before being eliminated at 1am on Sunday morning with fewer than 50 runners still left in the race. Kris fared much better with the format, crunching out the laps for 24 hours and covering over 100 miles, to come well in the top 20 overall and 2nd woman finisher beaten only by the current Irish women’s 24hr champion, who only needed to run one more lap after Kris dropped out. Incredibly, the race continued into Monday, with the final two male runners timed out on lap 36 or 150 odd miles.

The usual level of participation in parkruns took place on Saturday. Fiona Bane distinguished herself, not only with a great PB time but also placing first finisher, 12th overall, in the more than 100-strong field in Poppintree. Likewise, Brian Carroll ran well in

Ballincollig, coming home in 2nd place in 18:05 in a field of more than 380 participants, which also included Mairead Cashman, returning from injury, who placed 190th overall (49th woman) in 28:49. Meanwhile, there were 530 runners in Marlay, with Anthony O’Reilly, making a welcome comeback, taking 15th place in 19:26. Kate Murray was our 2nd Crusader home in 171st place overall, 29th woman, in 24:29 and Kate was followed by Mary Noelle Rohan (378th overall, 116th woman) in a time of 30:04. Neil Brown and Orlaith de Burca joined 190 other runners in Shanganagh, with Neil placing 58th in 25:32 and Orlaith taking 105th spot overall, 36th woman, in 29:26. Mairin Shine was our sole representative in Cabinteely, placing 73rd overall (24th woman, in a time of 29:05. The field measured 133 runners, whilst Tymon had a field of 192. Natasha Murray and Sharon Woods participated there, with Natasha placing 175th overall (70th woman) in 39:47 and Sharon with her stately 39:58, placing 177th overall, 72nd woman. Finally, we had 4 runners in St Anne’s along with 390 others on Saturday morning. Our first clubmate home was Anthony owns in 23rd place in a time of 20:37. Anthony was followed by Colm Kernan with another of his long training runs adding to the event (88th in 23:14), John Fitzsimons who will turn 80 this year showing that he’s still got it (244th in 28:55) and Ciara McElligott (285th overall, 89th woman, in 30:51).

Brooks Armagh Men’s 3K
Overall place Name Cat. Place Chiptime
1 Stephen Mackay 1 00:08:45
Crusaders AC runner
86 Alan Sheehy 00:10:15
Full results here: http://www.myrunresults.com/events/brooks_armagh_5k_international_road_race_/2031/results
BHAA ALSAA 2 miles women’s XC
Overall place Name Cat. Place Chiptime
1
Crusaders AC runners
Full results here:
BHAA ALSAA Mixed 5 miles XC
Overall place Name Cat. Place Chiptime
1 Karl Fahy
Crusaders AC runners
1 Karl Fahy
Full results here:
Tymon Parkrun #139
Overall place Name Cat. Place Chiptime
1 Dylan Keegan 1 00:16:35
8 Helen Carr 1 00:20:27
Crusaders AC runners
170 Natasha Murray 00:39:47 (70)
177 Sharon Woods 00:39:58 (72)
Full results here: http://www.parkrun.ie/tymon/results/weeklyresults/?runSeqNumber=139
Marlay Parkrun #197
Overall place Name Cat. Place Chiptime
1 Unknown 1 00:17:10
9 Sarah Baryga 1 00:19:26
Crusaders AC runners
15 Anthony O’Reilly 00:19:26
171 Kate Murray 00:24:29 (29)
378 Mary Noelle Rohan 00:30:04 (116)
Full results here: http://www.parkrun.ie/marlay/results/weeklyresults/?runSeqNumber=197
Cabinteely Parkrun #99
Overall place Name Cat. Place Chiptime
1 Paul Caulfield 1 00:18:40
16 Joanne Ryan 1 00:22:09
Crusaders AC runner
73 Mairin Shine 00:29:05 (24)
Full results here: http://www.parkrun.ie/cabinteely/results/weeklyresults/?runSeqNumber=99
St Anne’s Parkrun #171
Overall place Name Cat. Place Chiptime
1 Damien Martin 1 00:17:06
31 Maria O’Sullivan 1 00:21:06
Crusaders AC runners
23 Anthony Owens 00:20:37
88 Colm Kernan 00:23:14
244 John Fitzsimons 00:28:55
285 Ciara McElligott 00:30:51 (89)
Full results here: http://www.parkrun.ie/stannes/results/weeklyresults/?runSeqNumber=171
Poppintree Parkrun #120
Overall place Name Cat. Place Chiptime
1 Ken Shannon 1 00:18:13
12 Fiona Bane 1 00:22:33
Crusaders AC runner
12 Fiona Bane 00:22:33 (PB) (1)
Full results here: http://www.parkrun.ie/poppintree/results/weeklyresults/?runSeqNumber=120
Shanganagh Parkrun #100
Overall place Name Cat. Place Chiptime
1 Andrew Lawless 1 00:18:17
12 Zuleika O’Malley 1 00:21:09
Crusaders AC runners
58 Neil Brown 00:25:32
105 Orlaith Burke 00:29:26 (36)
Full results here: http://www.parkrun.ie/shanganagh/results/weeklyresults/?runSeqNumber=100
Ballincollig Parkrun #36
Overall place Name Cat. Place Chiptime
1 Conor Dolan 1 00:16:45
8 Emma Donlon 1 00:19:17
Crusaders AC runners
2 Brian Carroll 00:18:05
190 Mairead Cashman 00:28:49 (49)
Full results here: http://www.parkrun.ie/ballincollig/results/weeklyresults/?runSeqNumber=36