Connacht U15 Cross Country 2009, Palace Grounds, Tuam

The club is looking forward with eagerness to the forthcoming cross-country season, training for which is already underway in earnest  with the primary schools cross country coming up at the end of the month.  The dates have being confirmed for the various competitions:-

 Note the dates for the Galway even and uneven championships is subject to confirmation after the Galway County Board meeting this Tuesday:-

Last year, the club had a phenomenally successful cross country season winning 7 Connacht team titles and 1 silver and three gold, 2 silver and 3 bronze individual medals. The club went on to capture the U13 boys National title and take 4^th place in the U16 boys and U17 boys team events. This was the club’s best performance at National cross country level since 2005 when the U11 boys took team silver and the U11 and U13 girls took 4^th place and gives great encouragement for this year.

The distances this year for juvenile cross country are as follows:

If you like statistics and names, check out the following for a record of our performances in Connacht juvenile cross country:-http://www.craughwellac.com/images/statistics/craughwellperformancesinconnachtcrosscountry.pdf

At junior and senior level, there are equally exciting times ahead. The Connacht Novice and Masters cross country takes place in Sligo on 13^th October. A novice must be U20 or older and not previously have taken a medal at novice, intermediate or senior level. It’s likely that the Galway senior cross country will be a single race over an 8k distance as it was last year rather than different races for novice, intermediate, senior, masters – although you can still declare in a particular category to be in contention for individual medals.

Hopefully we will also have a senior women’s team in action. Having won the Connacht novice women’s title in 2010, we didn’t field a team last year but hopefully we can do so this year.We also hope to be able to field for the first time a junior men’s cross-country team. We have an exceptionally talented squad of distance runners and barring injury will have a strong team in action although I need to clarify if it’s ran as the same race at National level with the U18s as both are the same distance and on the same day.So lots to look forward to over the next few months on the muddy fields around Ireland!