Ballina Athletic Club Cross Country

Ballina Athletic Club is hosting an exciting new Cross-Country event for teenagers

The Ballina Athletic Club will host a Post Primary Schools cross country challenge for the 12 schools in its surrounding area on Wednesday 8 October 2014, in Belleek, Ballina to give all participants an opportunity to discover a talent for distance running. The Ballina area has produced some fine athletes and sportspeople over the years. Rest assured this generation of pupils are no exception in that regard but they need athletics events like this for their otherwise undiscovered talents to emerge.   

Aim

The primary aim of this event is to promote and support participation in athletics amongst post-primary pupils. Ballina Athletic Club has a comprehensive underage development structure with the expertise of dedicated and knowledgeable coaches who are immersed in athletics. However, the club has noticed a decline in recent years in the participation levels amongst teenagers and young adults and rather than accepting this, it is determined to get our teenagers back on track and bring the ‘X-Factor’ into cross-country running! It is a gateway discipline for so many other sports.

This Unique cross-country event promises to do just that with an exciting line up of shorter than usual cross-country races which will have all the teenagers vying for overall prizes for the pride and glory of their respective schools.

Team Sport

Far from being an individual sporting discipline, cross country running is a great team sport and one which encourages classmates/school colleagues to train and participate together, share victories and defeats together and hopefully find lifelong friends with a lifelong interest in athletics and participation in sport. Greater participation can be best achieved by developing and strengthening links between schools and club, which is what this event endeavours to achieve. The race distances have deliberately been kept short to encourage greater participation and entry of teams from the invited schools.

The club are very fortunate to have Ballina Beverages on board as event sponsors. They will be awarding a €500 Sports Bursary to the best overall girls school and best overall boys school on the day. This will be determined by the collective team finishing positions in the boys and girls categories. The purpose of the Sports Bursary is specifically to develop an athletics programme in the successful schools. It is hoped that the benefit of the sports bursaries should be two-fold. It should increase interest and participation in athletics at school level and also greatly assist in the development of sport in the successful schools.  It is also hoped that the awarding of a bursary will be an added incentive to schools to prepare and participate in the event in a spirit of friendly rivalry.

Prizes

The best overall schools will also be presented with Perpetual Memorial Shields sponsored by Collins Plastics Ballina. Medals will be awarded to the first 3 individuals and first 3 teams in each race. The number of runners per team is unlimited with the first four to score. We are looking forward to a fantastic days running on one of the finest cross country courses in the country.

If you are looking for something to do in the Ballina area on Wednesday 8th October, why not come along and give this event and our teenagers your support.

The Ballina Athletic Club offers a comprehensive coaching structure spanning from recreational running to a full programme of track and field events. Juvenile training is held on Monday and Wednesday evenings between 7-8pm at Belleek, Ballina and can be the pathway to a lifetime of running  - both recreational and competitive.

This event is supported by the Mayo Sports Partnership