On Sunday a crew of Craughwell AC Athletes made the trek to Abbotstown in Dublin to compete in the Autumn Open Cross Country Championships. 

The first event of the day was the inaugural senior Mixed 4x1500m relay which involved two men and two women running an any order the team desired.  The first two teams qualified for the European Club Competion in Portugal so the competition was fierce. Since we could run in any order we wanted there wa sa bit of debate! 16-year old Luke O’Sullivan has signed as super-sub and we thought that he may not be as experienced at pacing so gave him the tough task of first leg where he had a true race with the competitors. He took the first leg and performed superbly, working his way up into 4th position and holding that place all the way up the hilly route in a good battle with his Ennis track competior all the way. 

Luke passed over to club stalwart Caron Ryan who also delivered a very strong leg, but the other teams had throw more lads into the mix so the position started to shift.  Sinead Gaffney and Kyle Moorhead ran the final two legs – as the event went on the field became more spread out so Kyle really had nobody to work off in ihs final leg. In the end all the competitors thoroughly enjoyed the event and said they would be back.  Craughwell AC were 7th at the end with a very respectable first foray into this competition. 

William Fitzgerald and Oisin Davis ran the high standard 8km Open Cross Country race.  Both lads ran well with William coming 19th and Oisin 24th.  Each had a similar experience in the race – setting out at a too hard a pace and tiring at half way, but it was very valuable experience for the season ahead.