Today saw the Cork AAI County Senior Cross-Country Championships held in the Showgrounds, Clonakilty. The venue was the scene for last year's County Masters & Intermediate XC and the going was very wet at the time, so it seemed ominous for today's event.  And so it proved.  Heavy rain during the week ensured that the course was virtually waterlogged.  If that wasn't bad enough, part of it ran across a stream, which the men had to traverse 10 times in total!

The women were the firstof the two senior races, covering 5k.  Leevale's Lizzie lee went off hard from the gun, with Bandon's Carmel Crowley in close pursuit.  After about half a mile, the two leaders had a gap of about 80 to 100m over the Eagle trio of reigning champion Rhona Lynch, NiamhRoe and Anne Marie Healy.  Then came several Leevale, and Bandon athletes, with Eagle's Anne Marie Holland and Hannah Wootton after these.

The women had one small 1k lap and two 2k laps. Towards the end of the first lap, Rhona upped her tempo and started to give chase and had caught Carmel Crowley at the bottom of the hill, entering the 'finishing field'. Carmel managed to hang on for a good while, but Rhona continued pushing and was gaining steadily on Lizzie.  A little further back, Niamh and Ann Marie healy ran steadily but the evergreen Carmel Parnell, Leevale, moved ahead of both.  Meantime both Anne Marie Holland, making her XC debut, and Hannah ran strongly and both made up several places.

Comin into the 'finishing field' for the final time, Lizzle still had about 40 or 50m on Rhona, who was putting in a tremendous effort at retaining her title. by the time they entered the short finishing straight, the gap was down to justabout 5 metres and Lizzie, who had appeared to be flagging, managed to find another gear for the last 50 metres and held off Rhona.  The gap was just four seconds.  Bandon's Carmel Crowley ran steadily to take the Bronze medal, with Carmel Parnell, Niamh Roe and Ann Marie Healy filling the next three places.

Anne Marie Hollan, in her first XC race, ran strongly, particularly in the final lap, passing two runners in the latter stages.  One of these, in particular, was to have a crucial effect on the outcomeof teh championship - Leevale's, fourth scorer.  Hannah ran a great race as our anchor runner and came within 7 seconds of knocking Leevale's fourth scorer even further back. 

The final result was that Eagle Women retained their title, which they won for the first time last year, witha a points total of 22 (2, 5, 6, 9), ahead of Leevale with 24 (1, 4, 8, 11) and Bandon in third on 44 (3, 7, 16, 18)

The report on the men's event isn't as comprehensive - hard to report on when you're a back marker yourself!  The men had 5 x 2k laps - actually it turned out, based on my Garmin, to be marginally over 11k total. Eagle had five runners in thisrace also; Dave Muldowney, Paud Walsh, Pat Murphy, Paul Cotter and John Quigley.

The gun went and the field of 38 just took off, leaving yours truly right at the back.  I had two ambitions for the race; to finish and to try hard not to be last. With the conditions in mind, I decided to take it steadily and not to push the pace in the early stages, though it turned out that my first lap of 10:48 would be my fastest.  It was hard to see how thing were going at the front but, at some of the 'switchback' points, it was possible to see some of the front-runners. 

I continued ploughing away and early in the second lap , I passed a bandon athlete, who had just been passed by Paul Cotter.  Paul had pushed out his margin over me to about 100m by the end of the second lap. Half way through the third lap was when I was lapped by the first runners; Leevale's Mark Hanrahan, with East cork's Sean McGrath close behind.  they had a big lead on East Cork's James McCarthy, who, in turn, had a strong lead on the Togher pair of Peter Fennell and Eoin O'Sullivan.

By the end of my third lap, I'd been passed by 12 runners.  As each passed i gave them a short commentary of their position and how their team was doing.  The gap to Paul was down to about 100m.  Everytime we went uphill, I tended to gain on him, but he pushed it out again on the downhill sections.  Starting my final lap, 23 runners had lapped me, but I could now concentrate on the real race - my battle with Paul. Upping the pace, I cut the gap down to about 30 metres by the top of the hill, but, as always,Paul pushe it out to about 40m on the steep downhill, through the stream, but not as much as before.  Over the last, largely flat, 1, I kept up the chase but Paul had the finish in sight and the final margin was 21 secs, with Paul in 55:47 and yours truly in 56:08.

First home for Eagle was Dave Muldowney in 47:37, with Pat Murphy in 48:09 and Paud Walsh in 51:27.  Eagle were 7th team with 130 points (29, 32, 33 and 36).  East Cork retained their title with 23 points (2,3, 7, 11), from Leevale on 32 (1, 9, 10, 12), with Togher third on 38 (4, 5, 14, 15).

Leevale's Mark Hanrahan took Gold in 37:55, ahead of Sean McGrath, East Cork, 38:09 and James McCarthy, East Cork, 40:47.

Breaking News!

Eagle Men's team has been awarded the Senior 'B' Bronze medals for the championship.