Mayo Men and Women Cross Country championships and Trial
Mayo AAI county board is giving its full support to strongest possible men’s and women’s teams being entered from mayo in the AAI national inter counties cross country championship on November 21st and AAI national novice cross country championship on December 5th at venues yet to be decided.
As a build up to this the mayo county mens and women cross country championship and trial will be held in Ballina on Sunday October 3rd along with the mayo underage championships
Medals will be awarded to top 3 men and women finishers also club teams [4 to score in both men and women] A number of runners will be selected after this race while the remainder will be selected based on form leading up to the nationals also a number of mayo born runners competing with clubs outside the county will be considered
It should be noted that the national novice cross country is also an inter club event and any mayo club can enter its own team in this also
With the number of senior athletes running in mayo at an all time high it is hoped that this effort will result in our best runners making a big impact in cross country at national level .
Masters cross country trial
On Sunday October 17th while the mayo ac ladies team will be running in the European clubs cup in Portugal it is expected that quiet a number of mayo ac members will be heading to the Phoenix park for the Irish trial to select teams for the British and Irish Cross Country International to be hosed by Athletics Ireland on Saturday November 13th at Santry Demesne in Dublin This is the big annual event in masters cross country in this part of the world and will attract close competition from men and women teams from Ireland England Wales Scotland and Northern Ireland
The fact that the event is being hosted in Dublin this year will mean that there will be intense competition for team places in the various age categories .Men and Women’s teams will be selected from over 35 upwards followed by over 40 over45 over 50 and so on it should be noted that number of people per national team is six up to men+50 and four in all others
In recent years four mayo ac members Breege Blehien McHale Tom Hunt Ronnie Naylor and Paddy Murray competed with distinction in this event and it is expected that a number of the clubs runners will be pushing hard for places this year
More information on this event on www.irishmastersathletics.com