Irish Mountain
Running Association

British and Irish Mountain Running Championships

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Miriam MaherOct 13 2019, 6:34pmIt takes a village...

When it comes to the junior international mountain racing events, it does take a village of people to support and bring off these events.

For the athletes involved in the British and Irish Mountain Running Championships, held this year in Llanberis, Wales, they didn’t get to the start line without a lot of support from family and others. Even getting to the trials and any training sessions before the race itself automatically involves a willing parent to drive them there or carpooling with other parents. For some of the older athletes taking part - they are more able to travel under their own steam, but the majority still need support this way.

So for this, the last of the Junior international events of 2019, a chance to acknowledge all that support given. In more ways than one. For the three teams selected - 2 Under 20 teams - male and female and one Under 17 male team - a practical aspect that needed to be addressed was the mandatory kit requirement of waterproof bottoms, along with rain jackets, hats and gloves listed. Loath to put these young athletes, and their parents, to the cost of a piece of running kit that may otherwise get very little use, I put the call out on the forum to seek a loan of this kit for those that didn’t have pairs already.

To my delight and gratitude - the offers were swift and plentiful. My thanks to Peter O’Farrell, Tim Chapman, James Clancy, Gordon Place, Tricia McLoughlin and Jason Dowling for their generous lends of waterproof running bottoms and to Ann Chapman & Jarlath Hynes for being willing couriers of said waterproofs:)

Peter O’Farrell (and Orla McEvoy by default) and Brian Flannelly during the summer gave their time to accompany the teams on runs on the hills - these juniors are fast, you need way faster runners than me to keep up with them on the hills! Their time given and willingness to help out was much appreciated.

For the actual trip to Wales in September, Brian Flannelly and myself, along with Aidan Coffey, accompanied the juniors over on the boat. On Friday Sept 20th we got a chance to walk the route. A steep up and down route. Starting from a grassy track just up from the village of Llanberis to the summit of Moel Eilio and back down again, past the start, down a very very steep tarmac path to the finish line in a field below. ~ 7 km up and down, 447 ascent, 554 descent. Steep ascents and descents - the finishing stretch on the steep tarmac would prove to be particularly hard going for the runners pounding downhill.

The squad stayed in a youth hostel the other side of the Moel Eilio that night, an isolated but lovely spot. Think it’s safe to say that Brian and myself were lucky to have such an easy group of athletes to accompany. After a hotly contested and highly competitive game of cards played around a pool table draped in the tricolour with rules that seemed to vary somewhat as the game progresses - everyone took themselves off to bed early to rest up for the race in the morning.

The weather for this area of Wales can often be rainy and limited in visibility but that weekend we were lucky to have unseasonably dry, sunny and very warm conditions. Great for seeing the spectacular views of Snowdon and other peaks around...great for spectating at a hill race - a bit more challenging for those racing. With these dry and sunny conditions, the mandatory kit - carefully assembled - never got out of the boot of Aidan’s car as the Welsh RD made the call at the outset that no mandatory kit was required.

At the start of both races, Ann Buckley, the Chair of the selection committee for GB reminded all those racing that these races were also trials for the GB team going to the Worlds in Patagonia. The first two runners from England, Scotland and Wales were guaranteed places in the team selected. 2 other runners could possibly be selected too. However, Ann reminded them that only a team considered likely to place in the top 4 at the World champs would be selected...no pressure so... Although Ireland and N. Ireland weren’t part of this trial selection process, the reality was that the fields for both races were absolutely stacked with all the very best mountain runners from England, Scotland and Wales - all seeking spots in the GB team for Patagonia. In effect, there were two races going on within each race our teams took part in and the pace matched that.

The Under 20 girls - Aoife Coffey, Dearbhail Cuddy, Niamh James and Clodagh Moran - took off for their race first, racing with the Under 17 girls. Lauren Dickson (Scot) was a clear winner, finishing well ahead of the rest of the field. Lead home by Aoife, then Clodagh, Dearbhail and Niamh, all our Under 20 girls team raced their own races in those conditions and there’s no doubt they didn’t leave anything out there. It was a very tough race for all of them, varied experiences all around. Aoife and Dearbhail running in this age group for the first time, so have two more years left at this age group. Niamh has another year of being eligible for this race and Clodagh, also an Irish international on the orienteering side, will be moving out of this age group next year, wishing her the best with her future sporting endeavours.

The boys’ races were delayed starting because of an unfortunate casualty from the girls’ races. A member of the N. Ireland girls team collapsed on her way down, close to where the races were starting off, and needed medical attention. Thankfully she was well again once treated for heat exhaustion. But as she had collapsed close to the original start line, the boys were held off racing for some time. Eventually the decision was made to start the races a bit further up the course, past where the casualty was being attended to.

Off they took, and as with the girls’ race, the pace frantic. The race was won in a decisive, and not unexpected, manner by Joseph Dugdale (Eng) also the winner of the recent Junior Men’s race in the Euro championships in Zermatt. Have to mention the 6th place finish for Ronain Maguire (N. Ireland) and also a member of the Junior Men’s team for Ireland at the same Euro Championships earlier this year.

First down to the finish for Ireland was Harry Kearns (under 20), followed by Eoin Richards (under 17), Aaron Smith (Under 20), Cian McDonald (Under 20), Cian Law (Under 17), Luke Maher (Under 20), Evan Hogg (Under 17) and Shane Moran (Under 17).

Eoin Richards did particularly well given that he was running the Under 17 race. Good strong finishes for everyone, even if they suffered a lot at times through the races and it didn’t go as planned for some of them. Cian Law and Shane Moran, first time running in an international race - they absolutely gave it their all and will have learnt so much from the experience.

Harry Kearns and Cian McDonald - can move on now from their junior international experiences with pride to the next stage of racing, all the others will have the chance to go for these teams again next year.

It wasn’t our year for medals - England, Scotland and Wales dominated the podium places, Ireland came 5th, well done to Northern Ireland on their 4th place. We’ve raced and occasionally trained with a lot of the Northern Ireland athletes and it’s always great to meet them and their Manager - Phil Hodge - at these races.

All our juniors raced hard, some super strong finishes, out of medals this time around, but a really great squad and a group that we are very proud to have traveled with as they represented their country.

And behind these great teams - there were parents - plenty of them. Several parents traveled over to support. Always great to see them there, all of them keen to help in a variety of practical ways. Dearbhail’s Mum Audrey even managed to organise and bring over boxes of cupcakes specially decorated to celebrate Dearbhail and Evan’s birthdays that fell on race day! So, I’ll end as I started - it takes a village to bring together and send a team of juniors to internationals.

That’s it for this year, but next year we have the Youth Cup in Amberside in the Lake District, The British and Ireland Champs in Northern Ireland, not forgetting the European Championships in Portugal - all international mountain running events that juniors can aim for and train for. We hope to offer plenty of training and development opportunities to these juniors and others coming along next year. I’m preaching to the converted on this forum about the benefits of hill and mountain running for juniors - hopefully we will find the way to get the recognition of this great form of running to a wider audience, particularly at the junior level.