Athletics Ireland Virtual XC Challenge 2020
More than 4600 Juveniles take on the RDO Virtual Winter Challenge across Ireland.
This was a response to the dearth of competition opportunities in Ireland with the challenge of our Covid climate. It took longer than expected to standardise the various time formats sent in as it was more popular than expected. There were well over 4600 individual results to rank from more than 120 different clubs! What a celebration of running and congratulations to all who took part.
The certificates have been appreciated by the hardworking teams of volunteers, parents and of course those on the XC courses across Ireland. Obviously depending on when it was run, there would be various types of Irish weather to content with and some would have been lucky enough to bask in a glorious 12o C of Winter sunshine - the lucky ones!
The under 10 Boys was probably the closest of all the team races with just a few seconds separating the top teams. The under 17 boys was another close team race too with St Senans AC taking a 7 second win from United Striders AC. Just a 2 –second faster run by all united Strider runners would have seen different overall winner! It was no surprise that Tadgh Connolly was joint fastest, especially after his recent 30:19 10, 000m track run and we should watch the progress of David Williams who matched his time.
There is sure to be some reflections from coaches and athletes of how you can squeeze an extra second... e.g. pacing, technique, tactics, footwear, concentration and finishing speed. This is what is great about our sport there are so many areas to develop and we hope you and your coaches will continue to work towards this in 2021.
Good luck and good running,
Your RDO team at Athletics Ireland
