National Novice and Uneven ages descend on Dunboyne

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National Novice and Uneven ages descend on Dunboyne

The Irish Life Health National Novice and Juvenile Uneven Cross Country Championships always delivers a great day of sport and will round out the cross country racing season for 2019 at the Cow Park in Dunboyne on Sunday (December 15th).

The runners charging en masse in the juvenile and novice races creates a special atmosphere – even wet and cold weather can’t dampen the spirits.

There’s no doubting there will be some mud and challenges along the way with action getting underway with girls U11 1500m at 11:30am with 12 races in total. Meath Athletics hosted a very successful championships in Navan last year so another great day of action is in store.

Full entry list is HERE and timetable HERE

Dublin City Harriers look to deliver in women’s Novice

There are 184 women listed in the club section of the entries with Dublin City Harriers looking strong contenders with a big team entered.

The names listed for the Dublin club include Nadia Power, Jodie McCann and Cliona Murphy. All three have been in good form of late. Power and McCann competed in the European cross in the mixed relay and the U20 respectively while Murphy ran 16:34 on the road at the Jingle Bells 5km.

Sarah Kelly (Inishowen) is another athlete listed who ran in the U20 race at the Euro cross and should have another good showing. Carla Sweeney (Rathfarnham WSAF) and Fiona Everard (Bandon) are others who should feature individually.

Waterford, Dunboyne, St Abban’s, Leevale and Sportsworld all look like having reasonably strong teams that can feature.  

Men en masse

There are a host of strong clubs and big entries on the men’s side also with 230 athletes listed on the entries.

Ennis Track, Craughwell, Clonliffe Harriers, DSD and Galway City Harriers all look like having competitive teams with big club entries from the likes of Crusaders, Donore Harriers, Finn Valley, Sportsworld and Sligo.

Donal Devane is part of the Ennis Track team having finished 6th in the U20 race at the national cross country championships three weeks ago and will look for a strong showing.

Efrem Gidey is on the entry list and it will be interesting to see if the young Clonliffe Harrier races having won bronze at the European cross country championships in Lisbon last weekend. He will surely be the favourite if he toes the line.

DSD have Joe Hastings as one of their leading lights while Galway City Harriers have Keith Fallon and James Frizzell.

Exciting Juvenile Races

The juvenile races will provide the customary emotion and drama dovetailed with free spirit running.

The U17 girls 4,000m has a strong entry with Aimee Hayde (Newport), Eimear Maher (DSD), who competed at the Euro cross, and Ava O’Connor (Tullamore Harriers) among the starting list.

The U17 boys 5,000m also has a quality entry list with the Casey twins, Dylan and Dean, of Ennis Track Club returning. Scott Fagan (MSB) will be among those leading the chasing pack.

The U19 girls 4,000m includes Aoife O’Cuill (St Coca’s), Maeve Gallagher (Swinford), Lucy Holmes (West Waterford) and Danielle Donegan (Tullamore Harriers).

The boys U19 6,000m is the last juvenile race on the card with Shay McEvoy (Kilkenny City Harriers), Michael Morgan (Sligo) and Daniel Stone (Raheny Shamrock) just a number of the leading contenders.  

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