Galway senior county and city teams will compete in the fastest cross country race on the calendar, the National Novice championships.
Part of the National Cross Country Championships, it takes place in Dundalk IT on Sunday, alongside adult novice races and the second day of juvenile competitions.
The men go over 6km, and are led by Irish U23 international Keith Fallon of GCH, who returns from the USA, with Andrew O'Donnghaile, Timmy Jones and Jerome Debize, all of GCH, and Vincent McGuinness and Ciaran Diviney of Crusaders AC, all likely to feature strongly on the Galway team.
The women run over a 4km distance, and have plenty of quality athletes in their lineup, with GCH runners Barbara Dunne, Jean O'Connor, Joanne O'Boyle and marathon team gold medallist Siobhan Egan in their ranks, and they will seek to match or better their team bronze of a year ago in Dungarvan.
The uneven juvenile ages also compete in the second day of National Juvenile cross country competition, with races at U11, 13,15, 17 and 19 level for boys and girls. Galway athletes looking for strong performances are Emma Moore at U13 level, Eanna Folan and Joe Tannian at U19, and Aaron Brennan (all GCH ), as well as the Tuam U11 boys; squad who are Connacht champions at present, and Ballinasloe and District AC’s U13 Boys squad.
Joyce in Europe
Aisling Joyce of NUI Galway competes for Ireland in the junior ladies over 4km in the upcoming European Cross Country Championships.
The talented Claremorris AC member, now a student of NUIG, will run along on the Irish junior squad of six against Europe’s best on what is likely to be a fast course.
The championships will be held on Sunday in Chia, on the island of Sardinia, in Italy. The race starts at 10.15am local time.
