Northern Ireland Mountain Running Association
www.nimra.org.uk

 

European Championship Results

Mon 11 July 2005 - Ian Taylor

Congratulations on the two Irish teams taking part in the European Championship race in Heiligenblut, Austria over the classic Grossglockner course.

The mens team was 15th out of 23 full teams, with John Heneghan in 37th place (1:18:34), Sean Oheigeartaigh (58th, 1:23:15), Brian Ervine (67th, 1:26:21) and George Lonergan (77th, 1:30:40).  The winning time of 1:11:36 was set by Florian Heinzle of Austrian with Martin Cox of the UK team in 8th place in 1:14:06.  The latter was well supported by Steven Vernon, Andrew Jones & Tim Davies to get the silver medal behind the invincible Italians.  The race this year was uphill only with the last 800 metres having a very steep climb - equivalent to the route from the Saddle to the top of Donard.  The fastest time for this section was 8:22 with Brian Ervine taking 9:44 and gaining two places.

In the shorter Ladies race the Irish team finished in 17th place overall, with the first finisher being Cathy McCourt in 55th place with a time of 1:27:21, closely followed by Kerry Harty (61st in 1:29:42), Anne Sandford (64th in 1:32:03) and Jane Cahill (68th in 1:41:59).  The winner was Andrea Mayr of Austria in 1:07:42 with Mary Wilkinson in 7th place in 1:13:35 being the first finisher of the UK team.  The latter packed well with Mary closely followed by Victoria Wilkinson, and Lyn Wilson to gain the gold medal ahead of the Italian team.  The result could not have been closer as both the UK and Italian teams had 34 points, with the result being decided on which team finished their three counters first.  Lyn Wilson in 19th place finished one place and 4 seconds ahead of the third Italian and clinching the Gold medal!  The Irsh Ladies team each took approximatly 12:40 for the last steep section, with the fastest female time in this part being 9:52.

Meanwhile others had competed in the "proper" Grossglockner race the previous day.  With 711 entrants, athletes were started in two groups 10 minutes apart, with the faster runners in the first group.  Jonathan Wyatt of New Zealand is obviously in form for the World Trophy in his home country this September as he stormed to the finish in 1:12:55 over four minutes clear of second placed John Brown of the UK.  His final timed section was 7:46, over 50 seconds faster than anyone in the Championship race, suggesting he will be hard to beat in September.  There were 6 runners from the UK out of the 711 entrants, with a great performance put in by Richard Rodgers in 25th place in 1:30:42.  Simon Taylor, through misunderstanding or language difficulties, started in the second slower group and then had to work hard passing on the narrow tracks runners who had started in the earlier group.  He reached the penultimate checkpoint in 1:20:11, slightly slower than Richards time of 1:19:43 and then blew up in a big way, taking 16:32 for the final section and finishing in 53rd place with 1:36:44.  (of course some readers may decide that this reporter is slightly biased!)

The UK team managers also took part but I can report that they were well behind Richard & Simon, with Adrian Woods in 163rd place (1:48:46), Alan Barlow 427th (2:09:26) and Sharon Woods 436th in 2:10:09 - but these are still good times with the 711st runner taking 3:37:37.