IMRA January Events Round Up Report

POSTED:

It's been a very busy start to the year on the mountains. We started the year by launching an instagram page -  https://www.instagram.com/irishmountainrunning/ to increase our reach. Our website - www.imra.ie - remains the source for all fixtures, results, governance etc. But the instagram page is proving to be a great success in sharing news and updates of our events.

Key events and developments so far:

Ballyhoura Forest was the setting for the marathon (197 runners) and half marathon (266 runners) moonlight challenge which took place early in January. Conditions tough going underfoot but excellent feedback and reports from this very popular event, now in it's second year.

The leagues in Munster, Leinster and South Leinster all took off. We've held a total of 5 races to date. A mixture of trail and mountain routes. About 160 participants per race with junior courses available too. A stand out performance came from Aoife Coffey, 18, Irish international junior mountain runner, who came 3rd overall, 1st female in a new course record time at the Brockagh Mountain race. Her fellow Team Ireland mates and new hill running juniors also making their presence felt at the races. 4 top 10 finishes with 2 podium places on the full and short courses at the Castlecomer Race last weekend.

We held the first of our Junior Training & Development Workshops on January 21st in Ballyhoura. IMRA are working with www.missinglinkcoaching.co.uk this year for our juniors development programme this year. The Workshop themes dealt with early season/base training for mountain running with a focus on injury avoidance.

@missinglinkcoaching are Paul Tierney (Ultra Mountain Runner, Wainwrights record holder and former Cork Hurler) and his partner, Sarah McCormack, (Ranked #1 female mountain runner - WMRA - 2019 as well as an Irish International runner). Their specialist coaching skills and experiences are an excellent addition to our focus on developing our juniors for mountain running.

The workshop was attended by 18 young athletes aged between 16 and 19 who came from Mayo, Kildare, Cork, Laois, Clare, Wicklow and Tipperary. We will be holding another Workshop in Wicklow on March 21st. That workshop will focus on pre-internationals trials preparation training.

The annual College Champs Race will be held in Glendalough on March 21st, a popular race with college athletic clubs and orienteering clubs!

We've finalised the plans for our International trials for the following 2020 races: Interceltic Trail Race (France, May 30th) U18 Youth Cup (England, June 20th), European Mountain Running Championships (Portugal, July 4th) and the British and Irish Junior Mountain Running Championships (Northern Ireland, September 12th).

Trials for the Interceltic Race will be held as part of the Maurice Mullins Trail race on March 28th. Trials for the U18 Youth Cup teams and the Junior and Senior European Championships teams will be held as part of the Mount Leinster IMRA race on May 3rd. The trials for the British & Irish Championships U17 and U20 teams will be held in Glendalough on July 12th. Full details of these trials are posted on our events page on the website. Details for the World Mountain Running Championships (Lanzorate, November 14th) trials are curently being finalised. 

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