News Item

17th International U18 Mountain Running Cup, Spain

Tuesday June 25 - Dáithí de Mórdha

Some of our younger athletes got a taste of international competition this past weekend at the 17th International u18 Mountain Running Cup in Montana Palentina in Spain, and they did us proud.

The race was just over 5k with 224m ascent.

The girls’ team of Siobhán O’Loughlin, Della McLoughlin, Faye O’Riordan and Katie McLoughlin ran brilliantly and finished in 13th position, with Siobhán placing best in 34th.

The boys’ team of Rory Lush, Conor McGuirk, Luke Mahon and Finn Yore placed 12th overall, with Rory achieving a very commendable 29th position.

Also of note...Riley Connolly came 3rd in the open race (1st U16) and Aine O Loughlin (Siobhan's sister) came 3rd too!

Congratulations to all involved and keep an eye out for those names in the future!

Our Junior Development Officer, Elizabeth Wheeler, will provide a full report soon on this super trip. Our juniors travelled with NIMRA’s juniors, continuing with the long-established close cooperation and collaboration between our two organizations for junior development. Phil Hodge, Elizabeth’s counterpart in NIMRA, was a valuable member of the team management that travelled with the European championships squad recently.

Thanks to Elizabeth and Owen Connolly, who made up the management team for this trip with the juniors. An immense amount of background work goes into these trips. We’re very grateful to all the work, effort and time given by them.

Next up for the juniors will be the trials on August 24th (https://imra.ie/events/view/id/2552) for the U17 and U20 teams for the British and Irish Junior Mountain Running Championships. We will be hosting this event in Wicklow this year on September 14th, 2024. This will be a super opportunity for our juniors to shine! If anyone is interested in being part of the support team needed for this event, please let Elizabeth know.