Well done to Andrew Fitzpatrick who won two medals at the All-Ireland Cross Country in Navan on Sunday. Placing an excellent 11th of 178 boys in the Under-11 1500m earned Andrew a top-12 finisher medal. He was also the second Connacht athlete across the line to help the province win silver in the Regional team standings.
Robin Og Murphy had a good run in the Under-17 girls race placing well after the 4500m on soft ground.
Following the Juvenile races, the Novice Championships were held as underfoot began to cut up adding that bit more of a challenge on a cold day. Fiona Gettings put in another strong performance to place a fantastic 11th of 106 finishers in the women’s 4000m.
It was Fiona’s second race of the weekend after she ran a very quick 17:06 at the Jingle Bells 5k in the Phoenix Park on Saturday. This earned Fiona first place in her age category. Also setting fast times on a cool morning were Ciarán Madden (16:42), Ross Gannon (17:11) and Gary Brady (18:30).
Taking to warmer climes, Sinead Nolan placed first in her age category at the Lanzarote Half Marathon with a strong run finishing in 1:37 on Saturday.
On the track and closer to home, Cian McPhillips set a new Irish Under-23 record for 1000m indoors when clocking a swift 2:20.23 on Saturday in Athlone.
Congratulations also to Fionnuala McCormack who ran a superb 2:26 in the Valencia Marathon on Sunday. Fionnuala, who ran in our 10k race in 2019, has now secured her place at the Paris games next year which will be her fifth Olympics – an incredible achievement.
