World Masters
| Author | Date | Message |
|---|---|---|
| Tom Blackburn | Sep 18 2017, 4:32pm | World Masters Report This year for the masters we were trying to get more runners to participate. We have always been competitive in the Masters and this year was no different, even though we were still missing a few key runners to make up teams. When you go to events like this you need to have a team in each age group as even though you may not win an individual medal you may win a team prize. Slovakia is a beautiful country and arriving in Bratislava on Thursday it was 35 degrees which I taught was lovely as this is the sort of thing we expect when we go to Europe to these events. The Friday was cooler 25 degrees and Saturday, race day, was a cool 15 degrees, even cool by our standards not what most people were expecting. Since we were in Pruske on Thursday evening we did a course reci and were shocked at how little of a climb we would have to do. Now usually you would have butterflies in your stomach when you see how difficult a route is, but no one was expecting a route this flat and fast. But then you feel sick, when you think of how fast it’s going to be. Friday morning and most people were on their way to check in and collect their numbers. Keith Ryan and myself were the only two in the 0/50 category from Ireland and the same was true for a few of the other age categories. With everyone booked in we went back to our Hotels and tried to get a good night’s sleep before the races. The following morning as the first race headed out we had no one in the 0/75 or the 0/70, we had only one in the 0/65 Willie John Brown, we had only two in the 0/60 Martin Mc Donald and Peter Bell. Martin had a great run and came 2nd in his race Peter ran well but he had knee surgery a few years ago and felt he gust isn’t getting the best out of himself but they were outside the team prizes. There were 3 in the 0/55 Ger Mulone, Willie O Donoghue and Sil Ivors, Ger is used of these events and has won medals on a couple of occasions. But in spite of running a great time over the course he finished 8th .The new rule of two runners per team for men 0/55 up, means you need two runners in the top 10 to win any colour medal. Keith Ryan and myself were lacking a third runner to make a team in our category but even at that I would have needed to be further up the field to even consider a team prize. The 0/45 was won by Des Kennedy who had a fantastic run, Bernard Fortune and Brian McGuckian ran well but were also just outside the prizes on the day. We had no one in the 0/40 men but we made up for it in the 0/35 with 10 runners toeing the line. It was all Ireland in this race as all 10 finishing in the top 20 Ian Conroy leading them home with a great run to take 3rd place and was part of the gold medal winning team. So Ian Conroy, Eoin Flynn, Brian Fury, Michael Mc Carthy, Paul Dean, Sean Quirke, John Kinsulla, Jason Keogh,Brian O Murchu and Brian Flannelly all did us proud. The lady’s weren’t going to be out done, we only had lady’s in the 0/40, 0/45 and 0/50 category’s. Gillian Wassen came 3rd in the 0/40 race and Hazel Mc loughlin coming 12th to take 3rd team. Shileen O Kane and Zoe Melling were 4th team in the 0/45 and Tricha Balckburn was the only Irish lady to run in the 0/50 race and in spite of being injured finished the course on the day. It is great to go to a World Championships like this to represent your country and wear the green jersey for Ireland. It is a pity we couldn’t fill out teams in more of the age category’s as this would make the possibility of winning more medals. But all in all we had a great time and look forward to Slovenia 2018. |
| Jeff Swords | Sep 18 2017, 9:32pm | Nice write up Tom, well done everyone. |
| Laura Flynn | Sep 18 2017, 10:03pm | Thanks for that report Tom, sounds like there were some great performances. I was really sorry to have missed it...hopefully I'll be able to join Trish next year and make an over 50 team. |
