NATIONAL NOVICE & JUVENILE UNEVEN CROSS COUNTRY TITLES ON THE LINE IN NAVAN
The 123.ie National Novice and Juvenile Uneven Cross-Country Championships promise to deliver another exciting day of athletics this coming Sunday (Dec 3rd).
The Irish cross-country season heads to Navan Racecourse in County Meath for the last national cross country event of 2023, with eyes then turning to Brussels as Irish athletes, including last year’s Novice Champion Fiona Everard, take to competition at the European Cross Country Championships in Belgium on December 10th.
Sunday’s 12-race schedule gets up and running with the Girls U11 1500m at 11:30am. The Novice Women 4000m race will take to the gun at 14:40pm followed by the Novice Men 6000m at 15:10pm.
Local athletes dominated last year’s novice races in Cork with the aforementioned Fiona Everard (Bandon AC) and men’s champion Paul Hartnett (East Cork) taking top honours so time will tell if Navan 2023 will follow the trend.
Full schedule Here
A bumper entry of over 1500 juvenile athletes will battle it out for honours during the morning session before the ultra-competitive looking novice races take centre stage.
Mullingar Harriers will bid to defend their 2022 title in the men’s novice race, likely to be pushed all the way by Craughwell, GCH, Finn Valley, Tullamore Harriers, and a strong contingent of clubs from Dublin.
Finn Valley’s Sean McGinley is entered and would be one of the leading contenders for individual honours if taking his place, as would Michael Murphy of Tullamore Harriers AC who finished just behind McGinley in Gowran.
Dylan Casey (Ennis Track) was 6th last year and performed well in Gowran a fortnight ago, while Raheny’s Shane Spring was 11th in this race in 2022 and testing underfoot conditions could be in his favour.
Dublin City Harriers look to have another strong entry as they look to go back-to-back following last year’s team title in the women’s race. If they are to do so, Orla Duffy (DCH) will likely play a leading role following on from the form showed in her superb 16th place finish at the senior championships in Kilkenny.
The race for individual honours does look hard to call however and last year’s 4th and 5th place finishers in Lucy Holmes (West Waterford AC) and Edel Gaffney (Trim AC) are sure to be right there once more.
Noémie Leduc (Grange/Fermoy AC) ran a storming race in Gowran to finish 11th in the senior race and could be one to keep a close eye on as the race develops, while the talented pair of Emma O’Brien (Sli Cualann AC) and Roise Roberts (North Belfast Harriers) can’t be discounted.
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