County championships, hills of Waterford and the trails and lakes of Kenmare
JUVENILE COUNTY INDOOR CHAMPIONSHIPS
In a hugely supported county indoor championship last Saturday in Nenagh the club had 15 juveniles pull on the vest of the club to run and jump their little hearts out with many of these little ones making their athletic debut.
Jumping in the long jump, Cormac Kinnane jumped his way into 3rd, Tim Morrissey 9th, Gearoid Kinnane 9th, Kiara Sheehan 13th, Kate Ryan 16th, Ava Leonard 20th, Nick Morrissey 27th, Aisling Kinnane 27th, Rachel Butler 28th, Kitty O’Dwyer 29th, Ciara Hayes 30th, Grainne O’Brien 31st, Aoife Kiely 33rd and Tessa O’Dwyer 34th. In the 60 metre sprints, Tim Morrissey finished 4th, Rachel Butler 4th, Gearoid Kinnane 5th, Cormac Kinnane 10th, Ciara Hayes 11th, Aoife Kiely 16th, Aisling Kinnane 17th, Nick Morrissey 18th, Ava Leonard 19th, Grainne O’Brien 24th, Tessa O’Dwyer 26th, Kate Ryan 30th and Kiara Sheehan 34th. In the middle distance 300 metres Kitty O’Dwyer took 6th place and Maeve Kenny finished in 10th.
COUNTY INTERMEDIATE ROAD CHAMPIONSHIPS
From Quilty in Co Clare the weekend before last to Ballyneale in Co Tipperary last Sunday what can be said about these two brave boys - Willie O’Donoghue and Damien Holian. Carrick on Suir AC were hosts to the second race of the county road season last Sunday afternoon. The county intermediate start line was a short warm up jog a short half a kilometre outside the village of Ballyneale, Co Tipperary. Over 8k on the two lap right handed course these two boys shone. Willie powered home in 10th position follow by Damien in 15th. Unfortunately for these two lads they didn’t have the support of a team on the day hence were not able to achieve a team position.
KNOCKMEALDOWNS HALF MARATHON
It’s named the Knockmealdowns Half Marathon but is actually slightly longer (at 24 kilometres) and it took place last Saturday morning as part of the Munster Half-Marathon League.
An extreme event difficulty with 1,112 metres of climbing, this wasn’t for the faint hearted. A status yellow rain and wind warning being issued for Saturday afternoon, the decision was made on Friday to reverse the course so all competitors would be off the open mountain before the weather advisory began to take hold. Trekking across this extreme event was Kevin Lenihan, Liam O’Donnell and Robert Cunningham.
QUEST KENMARE
Quest Kenmare is a one-day multi-sport race with three routes varying in distance and difficulty 78km, 43km and 28km.
Running cycling and kayaking across the most epic environments of the beautiful rugged surrounds of Kenmare town in the South West of Ireland on the Wild Atlantic Way. Noelle O’Brien, Louise Casey and Katie Frazer started in Kenmare town on a controlled rolling bike start for the first kilometre until the cyclists passed Sheen Falls. It was then on through the historical Bonane Valley, a secondary tarred road with grass in the middle and a couple of gradual inclines until they got back to the Kenmare to Glengarriff Road.
It was then onto the next transition at Molly Gallivans a distance of 18k covered. From the transition at Molly Gallivans it was onto an 8km run gravel track and open mountain race up to the top of Esk Mountain and back down again with an elevation of 370 metres, from Molly Gallivan’s there was a 14k cycle following the main road back to Kenmare Golf Club, in Kenmare town. From here a 1k trail run brought them to kayaks at Kenmare Bay for 1k kayak. A final 1k run to the finish line from the kayak through the town to the finish line at the square in heart of Kenmare.
CLUB EVENTS
Club events planned for 2022 are The Michael Curley Cunningham 4 Mile (13th May), The Mooreabbey 10 Mile (10th July), The Mile Dash (31st December), World Masters Mountain Race Clonmel 2022.
WORLD MASTERS MOUNTAIN RACE
Registration is online at wmmrch2022.ie. All eyes and ears look and listen up, because I think you won’t want to miss or pass up an opportunity of a life time to represent your country in an amazing event to be held in our back yard per say. As many of you will know by now Ireland were successful in the bid to host the World Masters Mountain Race this coming September. There will be a great opportunity for all to take the course on a test drive on June 19th to be known as the Great Irish Run (registration on https://www.imra.ie/ users/myimraselecttype/) before committing and signing up for the big event itself on September 3rd. To participate in the event there are no qualifications and the only restriction is that you must be over the age of 35 and under 80 be familiar with mountain running, competitive over 10k and very fit.
So if you’re willing to back yourself, we are ready to back you and we would only love to see a flood of green jerseys on the trail. Event details can be found on the website www.wmmrch2022.ie.
ADULT TRAINING
Adult training takes place on Tuesday and Thursday nights in the community field Galbally from 7pm to 8pm. Newbies are always welcome, so should you have an interest in joining us at our training sessions please message us via our social media page Mooreabbey Milers AC and we will point your running shoes in the right direction.