McCormack leads Irish six for ultimate cross test

McCormack leads Irish six for ultimate cross test

An Irish team of six athletes will take on the exciting and challenging prospect of the IAAF World Cross Country Championships in Aarhus, Denmark on Saturday (March 30).

Two-time European Cross Country champion Fionnuala McCormack (Kilcoole) is the lead athlete and goes in the women’s 10,000m race along with Sara Treacy (Dunboyne).

McCormack’s best finishes have been 14 in Mombassa in 2007 and in Bydgoszcz in 2013. The testing nature of the course will excite McCormack with the 2km loop having lots of twists and turns, steep uphill and downhill along with mud and water sections. This is the ultimate test in natural terrain running – the type of running that gave the Wicklow woman the love for the sport on her favourite surface.

More than 300 athletes (171 men, 139 women) are entered for the individual senior races, while more than 200 (121 men, 111 women) will be in action in the U20 races.

Sean Tobin (Clonmel) and Kevin Dooney (Raheny Shamrock) go in the senior men’s 10,000m – both making their senior bows.

Darragh McElhinney (Bantry) and Jamie Battle (Mullingar Harriers) are also making their debuts in the U20 men’s 8,000m and this will all be about their development as distance runners and working towards the European Cross Country Championships in Dublin in 2020.

This event also marks 40 years since John Treacy won the World Cross Country Championships in Limerick in 1979 along with guiding the men’s team to historic silver medals.

Irish timetable (Irish time)

11:10 U20 men – Darragh McElhinney, Jamie Battle

12:00 Senior women – Fionnuala McCormack, Sara Treacy

13:00 Senior men – Sean Tobin, Kevin Dooney

Live stream HERE 

Action will also be on the red button on BBC

Event Timetable HERE 

Event by event previews HERE 

IAAF World Cross Country Championships Irish medallists

Individual:

1975 Junior John Treacy BRONZE 21.43

1976 Junior John Treacy BRONZE 21.23

1978 Long Course John Treacy GOLD 39.25

1979 Long Course John Treacy GOLD 37.20

1992 Long Course Catherina McKiernan SILVER 21.18

1993 Long Course Catherina McKiernan SILVER 20.09

1994 Long Course Catherina McKiernan SILVER 20.52

1995 Long Course Catherina McKiernan SILVER 20.29

1998 Long Course Sonia O’Sullivan GOLD 25.39

1998 Short Course Sonia O’Sullivan GOLD 12.20

Teams:

1975 Junior Team SILVER 35pts

John Treacy 3rd, Louis Kenny 9th, Gerry Finnegan 10th, Gerry Redmond 13th,

Dick Hooper 28th

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1979 Long Course Team SILVER 198 pts

John Treacy 1st

, Danny McDaid 11th, Gerry Deegan 43rd, Mick O’Shea 46th,

Donie Walsh 47th, Tony O’Brien 50th, Eamonn Coghlan 70th, Ray Treacy 79th,

Eddie Leddy 127th

1997 Long Course Team BRONZE 64 pts

Catherina McKiernan 7th, Sonia O’Sullivan 9th, Valerie Vaughan 23rd, Una

English 25th, Maureen Harrington 108th, Pauline Curley 117th

2002 Short Course Team BRONZE 85 pts

Sonia O’Sullivan 7th, Ann Keenan-Buckley 10th, Rosemary Ryan 18th (19th),

Maria McCambridge 50th (62nd), Valerie Vaughan 64th, Maureen

Harrington 92nd