Maynooth 2002

The annual road relays marked the beginning of this years Intervarsity Cross-Country season. The course, set in the magnificent grounds of the old campus of St. Patrick's college, Maynooth measures a mile in length.

The ladies relay consists of four runners, each running either 1 or 2 miles, in the 1-2-2-1 mile interval pattern, while the 5 strong mens team run 1-2-3-2-1 pattern.

Men's champions of the day were Queens University and the ladies title went to D.C.U., who claimed their first ever gold medal at intervarsity level.

Despite failing to retain their title from last year. Trinity being the first club ever to win two medal positions, a great turn-out and some very promising performances rendered the day a success in the eyes of all including captains, Janine Jensen and Karl Fahy.

As is the style of DUHAC, it was all hands on deck at the weekend with 9 teams consisting of 45 athletes competing in the road relays. With 4 teams competing in the ladies race, Janine was left well pleased with the final results. The first Trinity team home consisted of three reliable old hands, Helen Murphy, Cora O'Reilly and Tanya Stevens. Helen running the 2nd fasted overall mile, 5.37sec. The team were anchored with a great run by first year Eleanor Griffiths in her first outing for TCD combining their efforts to achieve a very well deserved 3rd place only 2sec behind UCC and 6sec behind winners DCU. TCD B team finished in 5th position. Newcomer Elish Kelly, our ladies GAA footballer put in a brave, courageous and extremely fast second leg running the fastest for trinity over 2miles in 11.55sec. The third and forth teams consisted of some sprinters and some enthusiastic newcomers. Una McCarthy took a well-deserved break form writing her thesis and the ever-reliable Sinead McGrane competed impressively alongside sprinters Lesley O'Connor and Mary McLoone. While Joan and Niamh Dillon, Olivia Tracey and Niamh O'Boyle showed much potential.

Following from this success the men's race commenced. With 22 teams competing, up from 13 last year the 5 trinity men first leg runners took to the starting line with nervous anticipation. The dreaded frosty conditions only served to add another bite to the tangible sense of prevailing excitement. Strong and consistent performances prevailed throughout with our first team finishing 3rd in 43.36sec, behind Queens in 42.50sec and UCC in 43.30sec. The race was surprisingly close throughout the 9mile long trek and expectations were suitably high. Aubrey Story and Sean Brady put in impressive runs while new athlete Peter Mason stole the show running the fastest 3mile of the day. Our second team finished 10th, one ahead of UCD's first team, proving once again the strength of the squad and issuing a warning to UCD to watch out as the forthcoming Colours competition lurks just around the corner.

Trinity subsequently finished 18th, 20th & 22nd. Aidan Hogan ran the fastest mile while Paddy Cassidy clocked in with the 2nd overall fastest 2mile stint. The training has certainly paid off for our established runners John Cunniffe, Eoin McDonnell and Rob Bruce-Brand, while newcomers Alexandra Zschocke and Sopella Zurkare proved themselves a s highly competent athletes.

A hot meal, kindly offered by our hosts was much appreciated by all who thawed sufficiently to take to TramCo's dance floor in style.

Now the Indoors intervarsities looms on the horizon for all athletes on 6th & 7th December in the lovely indoor arena in Nenagh. Picking of teams will prove especially difficult this year and we should hope to see all our athletes new and old giving it a bash, especially with the introduction of the new multi-events competition. The closing date for entries is this Wednesday, so its very important that if anybody who would like to compete to contact the captains-ladies entries to leoconno@tcd.ie or mens to phoward@tcd.ie One thing is for certain; the trinity team will do everything in their power to retain their champion status from last year. And with the help of you, we can make that happen. There will be trials in UCD this Sunday morning at 11, and even if you don't plan on racing a time trial is always a good way of evaluating your fitness levels, so anyone interested feel free to come out and have a go. We need all the support we can get, so runners, get your spikes ready and all you freshers who joined in freshers week, whom we haven't seen head nor tail of yet ,if you can run, jump throw or hurdle, make yourself known and you could be coming to Nenagh with us for what promises to be a fun filled weekend!