News

The 123.ie National Novice and Juvenile Uneven Age Cross Country Championships promise to deliver another exciting day of athletics this coming Sunday (Dec 1^st).

The Irish cross-country season heads to Tramore Racecourse in County Waterford for the final national cross country event of 2024, with eyes then turning to Antalya as Irish athletes take to competition at the European Cross Country Championships in Türkiye on December 8th.

Sunday’s 12-race schedule gets up and running with the Girls U11 1500m at 11:00am. The Novice Women 4000m race will take to the gun at 14:40pm, followed by the Novice Men 6000m at 15:10pm.

• The full schedule can be found HERE
• Spectator tickets are available HERE
• Event and Parking Information can be found HERE
• Juvenile entry list can be found HERE (please note no new entries will be accepted)

A bumper entry of over 1600 juvenile athletes will battle it out for honours during the morning session before the ultra-competitive looking novice races take centre stage.

Craughwell will bid to defend their 2023 title in the men’s novice race, with Ennis Track, GCH, Finn Valley, and a strong contingent of clubs from Dublin sure to push them all the way.

The Finn Valley charge will likely be led out by Sean McGinley and Oisin Toye, while Galway City Harriers can call upon Thomas   McStay who ran a brilliant race in Enniskillen to cross in 15^th in the senior race.

Others sure to give their running include Jamie Battle (Mullingar Harriers AC), Oisin Murray (An Ríocht AC), and Robert Hewison (Kildare AC) who’ll look to use some of his track speed over the 6000m route. Ben Brunton (St. Brigids AC) ran a 2:27 marathon recently and is another not to be discounted.

A two-time Olympic gold medallist could also make an appearance on Sunday, with Paul O’Donovan set to put his shoulder to the wheel for Leevale AC once more. O’Donovan’s last national outing came for the Cork club back at these championships in 2022 (79^th).

Leevale look to have another strong entry in the women’s race as they look to go back-to-back following last year’s team title in Navan.

The race for individual honours looks hard to call however with several athletes heading into the weekend on the back of strong performances in Enniskillen. The Dublin challenge could very well come in the form of Celine Gavin (Donore Harriers AC) and Eimear Maher (Dundrum South Dublin AC) who were both inside the top 23 places at the senior cross.

Alex Murphy (Suncroft AC), Hannah Kehoe (Kilkenny City Harriers AC), and Neasa Reilly (Dunleer AC) will also fancy their chances of breaking into the podium places.

The U19 races get underway from 14.00pm with the girl’s race having the potential to be one of the races of the day with Clodagh Gill (Moy Valley AC), Pia Langton (Kilkenny City Harriers), Dearbhla Allen (St. Peter’s AC) all holding entries. Recent U20 champion Lucy Foster (Willowfield Harriers) also holds an entry, with the Willowfield athlete set to head for Türkiye next week with the U20 European cross country team.

The U19 boy’s race is also stacked with talented athletes. Caolan McFadden (Cranford AC) impressed again in Enniskillen and will take some stopping once more. His main challengers could come in the way of Sean Cronin (Clonliffe Harriers AC), Matei Uraschi (Clonliffe Harriers AC), Cillian Gleeson (Celbridge AC), and Finn Diver (Beechmount Harriers AC).

There’s no shortage of exciting talent in the U17 races with Emily Bolton (Clonliffe Harriers AC), Ava Diver (Beechmount Harriers AC), Emer McKee (Willowfield Harriers), Odhran McBrearty (Finn Valley AC), Noah Watt (Loughview AC), and Harry McKenzie (Enniskillen RC) just some of the names to look out for across both races.