Successful day for Mayo AC at Autumn Open Cross Country

Autumn gold at Abbottstown for Mags, Tom and Pauline

We had four runners representing the club at the Open Autumn Cross Country Festival today at the National Sports Campus in Abbotstown, Dublin today.

The event also serves as a trial for selection on the Irish team for the upcoming annual Home Countries Cross Country International in Swansea next month.

The 1500 metres Abbotstown course was in excellent condition. It has all the challenges you’d expect for a cross country event – wide grassy spaces and a few testing uphill sections.

There were two races for masters triallists. Our four competitors ran in the first of these races : women plus men o65 ran four laps (6k) apart from women o65 who did three – 4.5k.

It was great to see Norah Newcombe back competing in her first race since the arrival of daughter Sophie just four months ago. She finished an excellent seventh place in W35 in 23:36 and was very happy with her run.

Our other three runners are regular competitors at the Autumn Open trials. Pauline Moran was in brilliant form and won the W60 category in 24:51.

Likewise Mags Glavey who was also well prepared through her track training with Matt Bidwell and she breezed through to come home first in the W65 category over three laps in 21:15.

Tom Hunt ran in the trial in M70 for the first time and he finished first in this category over four laps in 27:24.

These three category winners look to be certain selections for the Irish Masters team to go to Wales when teams are announced later this week.

https://www.myrunresults.com/events/athletics_ireland_autumn_open_cross_country_/2794/results

In the final race of New York Road Runners Five Boroughs series, Patrick Jordan ran 2:18 in the Staten Island Half Marathon on October 14. On the previous weekend he ran 2:21 in the Georgetown Half Marathon. This was Patrick’s final racing preparation before joining a big squad of Mayo AC members competing in the Dublin City Marathon which incorporates the Athletics Ireland National Championships.