Weekend Report
Date: 15/12/08
Togher athletes had a very successful weekend competing at the European Cross-Country championships in Brussels and at the Cork County Senior & Junior Cross-Country championships in Watergrasshill.
Coach Steven Macklin and Craig Murphy travelled to Belgium for the European Cross-Country championships on Saturday. The course was a challenging one with sharp turns and mucky patches. Craig lined up in the Junior mens 6000m race seeking a top 15 finish. The pace from the off was relentless with Hassan Chahdi of France setting a very fast pace. Craig picked his way through the field on the first lap and found himself on the back of a breakaway group of 12 athletes. He tried hard to stay with the group but became detached and was left on his own with a large group chasing him from behind. Craig suffered a stitch on the last lap, which affected his finish. He battled hard and found himself in 12th place with 600m remaining. He gave it his all in the home straight and finished a fine 19th place with only 8 seconds separating 10th place and 19th. This was a great run by Craig and although he was a little disappointed with the last 600m of the race, he can hold his head up high on a fantastic year.
On Sunday the Cork Senior & Junior Cross-Country championships were held in Watergrasshill. Togher had both a junior and senior mens team in action and it proved to be a very successful day for the club. In the junior mens race over 6000m Richard Quirke led the team home in 4th place and with other superb runs from Padraig Sweeney 6th, Sean Barry 7th, Alex Kelly 8th, John Dorgan 9th, Cormac Lehane 10th and Craig Harrington 12th the team easily won the team title. In the senior mens race over 10000m Mark Hanrahan Leevale AC set a strong pace from the off and easily pulled away to take the title. Behind him Mauro Lafinchi had a great run to take 2nd place and with other great runs from Eoin O’ Sullivan 8th, Niall Duncan 12th, Donal Coakley 18th, Tony Kelleher 20th, Peter Fennell 22nd, Shane Coffey 36th and Kieran Cunningham 37th the club took home the silver team medals with East Cork AC winning their 6th consecutive team title. Congratulations to all the clubs athletes on their fine performances over the weekend.
Douglas CS athletes had the honor recently of having a training session with two current Olympic stars. Irelands Robert Heffernan and Spain’s Francisco Javier Fernandez paid a visit to Douglas Community School to run a race-walking challenge. Fernandez was in Ireland for a week training with Robert and the school was delighted to have them come along and run the challenge.
Fernandez pictured below is the world’s number one race walker and coached also by race walking legend Robert Korzenioski of Poland. Robert and ‘Paco’ as he is affectionately known, did some technique drills with the athletes and then had some mini races between them. All had a great afternoon and were delighted to get some photographs with both Robert and ‘Paco’. ‘Paco’ was impressed by some of the athletes and had some very kind words of encouragement to the athletes.
Photos from the Europeans
Togher athletes had a very successful weekend competing at the European Cross-Country championships in Brussels and at the Cork County Senior & Junior Cross-Country championships in Watergrasshill.
Coach Steven Macklin and Craig Murphy travelled to Belgium for the European Cross-Country championships on Saturday. The course was a challenging one with sharp turns and mucky patches. Craig lined up in the Junior mens 6000m race seeking a top 15 finish. The pace from the off was relentless with Hassan Chahdi of France setting a very fast pace. Craig picked his way through the field on the first lap and found himself on the back of a breakaway group of 12 athletes. He tried hard to stay with the group but became detached and was left on his own with a large group chasing him from behind. Craig suffered a stitch on the last lap, which affected his finish. He battled hard and found himself in 12th place with 600m remaining. He gave it his all in the home straight and finished a fine 19th place with only 8 seconds separating 10th place and 19th. This was a great run by Craig and although he was a little disappointed with the last 600m of the race, he can hold his head up high on a fantastic year.
On Sunday the Cork Senior & Junior Cross-Country championships were held in Watergrasshill. Togher had both a junior and senior mens team in action and it proved to be a very successful day for the club. In the junior mens race over 6000m Richard Quirke led the team home in 4th place and with other superb runs from Padraig Sweeney 6th, Sean Barry 7th, Alex Kelly 8th, John Dorgan 9th, Cormac Lehane 10th and Craig Harrington 12th the team easily won the team title. In the senior mens race over 10000m Mark Hanrahan Leevale AC set a strong pace from the off and easily pulled away to take the title. Behind him Mauro Lafinchi had a great run to take 2nd place and with other great runs from Eoin O’ Sullivan 8th, Niall Duncan 12th, Donal Coakley 18th, Tony Kelleher 20th, Peter Fennell 22nd, Shane Coffey 36th and Kieran Cunningham 37th the club took home the silver team medals with East Cork AC winning their 6th consecutive team title. Congratulations to all the clubs athletes on their fine performances over the weekend.
Douglas CS athletes had the honor recently of having a training session with two current Olympic stars. Irelands Robert Heffernan and Spain’s Francisco Javier Fernandez paid a visit to Douglas Community School to run a race-walking challenge. Fernandez was in Ireland for a week training with Robert and the school was delighted to have them come along and run the challenge.
Fernandez pictured below is the world’s number one race walker and coached also by race walking legend Robert Korzenioski of Poland. Robert and ‘Paco’ as he is affectionately known, did some technique drills with the athletes and then had some mini races between them. All had a great afternoon and were delighted to get some photographs with both Robert and ‘Paco’. ‘Paco’ was impressed by some of the athletes and had some very kind words of encouragement to the athletes.
Photos from the Europeans
