Calendar change for The Irish Championship
| Author | Date | Message |
|---|---|---|
| Liam Vines | Jun 14 2025, 11:18am | Great news Carrauntoohil is going back onto the 2025 calendar as an Irish Championship race. It will be taking place on 31st August and will be the last of the five Irish Championship races. It will start and finish on the Hydro Road. Full details of route and times will follow soon. Mangerton on the 6th of July will revert back to being a Munster Championship race only. But It’s not all good news. This race must be capped at 50 runners for permit reasons. It has been decided that entry to this race is going to favour those runners who can or have completed the Irish Championship in 2025 and will also be weighted towards those who have finished the championship in previous years. Entry to this race will be on an application basis and full criteria will be decided in the coming weeks. Mweelrea goes on sale on Monday morning and is one of three races still left in the Irish Championship |
| Brian Mullins | Jun 14 2025, 10:08pm | That’s great news Liam, thanks to Robbie, yourself and all the committee for making this happen. For aspiring entrants i can confirm my entry is up for sale to the highest bidder as i will be suffering elsewhere. I can already hear Sean Quirke breathing a sigh of relief. Payment will be in the number of pints of Murphy’s you are willing to buy!!! Oh and for first timers to the Hydro Road race route I’d encourage you to take a good look at the soles of your feet before the race as you won’t have any by the time you finish. True story! |
| David Power | Jun 16 2025, 9:43am | This is indeed great news to hear that access to Carrauntoohil is back, no doubt thanks to lots of behind the scenes discussions with the parties involved. Thanks team IMRA! However, changing the races that make up the Irish Champs is a disappointment (mid season), as I can't make the new date in August and had already planned the Mangerton weekend to make one of my 3 races. Could I suggest the IC is expanded from 5 to 6 races, so both Mangerton and Carrauntoohil are included? Especially if entry is limited to 50 and it also clashes with World Masters. |
| Joe Lalor | Jun 16 2025, 5:37pm | I second David's proposal, had summer plans set to complete IC on Mangerton. |
| Jason Kehoe | Jun 16 2025, 5:40pm | It’s great to see Carrauntoohil back and even better that it’s on the original course. Fair play for wrangling access. We’ll have to rake John Lenihan over the coals to find out his original secret descent line off the summit of Caher! That said, I have to row in behind David Power here as I’m in the same boat. Mangerton was going to be my third and final race, and we’ve had accommodation booked for the family since the original calendar was announced. We’ll be heading down regardless of what’s decided now. It does feel quite late in the season to make this kind of change. Back in the day, I’d shape my whole training season around the Championship dates, and if something like this happened mid-season, it would have been a disaster. Traditionally the Champs were run over 12 weeks and if you needed to hit the first and last race to secure a podium, God help you. This year it's already stretched to 14 weeks, and with this change it'll run to 16. That’s a long time to try to hold a peak, especially if you're aiming for the sharp end of the field. Again, credit where it’s due for getting the Hydro Road route back in play. Apologies if this comes across the wrong way, sometimes we’re damned if we do, damned if we don’t. Just adding my tuppence worth as someone who still cares a lot about the Champs. Thanks, Jason |
| John Bell | Jun 16 2025, 7:46pm | Fantastic news that Ireland’s highest peak is back on the irish camps calendar. Thank you all who helped arrange this. I like David's idea of adding this race to the championship, so best 3 of 6 for one year only. |
| Liam Vines | Jun 18 2025, 7:08am | Thank you all for the feedback, some very good points made and great ideas passed on. Just for 2025 we are going to have the Irish Championship be the best three results from six races. So Mangerton stays where it is as an Irish Championship race on the 6thJuly. Carrauntoohill goes in as the 6th race in the championship, but it will be on the 7th of September to avoid a clash with the World Masters. All of this could leave the results team with some work to do after the last race of the championship. This is taken directly out of the IMRA competition rules, which everyone should have a read of on the website Scoring systems – general principles The winner of a championship or league event is awarded one point. The person Finishing second is awarded two points and so on. In the event of a tie on points i. The runner with the most wins will be given the higher placing ii. If the tie is still not resolved, the runner with the best head-to-head result will be given a higher placing (e.g. if two runners are tied on points then if Person A beat Person B more times than Person B beat Person A then person A gets the higher placing) iii. If the tie is still not resolved, the best non-counting race will be used. I know all the rules above are not perfect for a championship with six races in it but for this year considering the work that Robbie has done to get a Carrauntoohill race onto the calendar if we have the odd age category tie so be it, we will have two prizes Age category’s are every bit as important as the overall winner’s category So keep an eye on the championship table as the races go by and know where you are and more importantly what you have to do. See some of you for Mweelrea on Saturday morning |
| Micheal McSweeney | Jun 19 2025, 9:57am | Thanks to Robbie and Liam for all your hard work. Well done lads. |
