Keswick British and Irish Junior Mountain Running Home International Report

by Colin Brennan

Saturday 16th September saw the British and Irish Junior Mountain running home international take place in Keswick. The hosts, England had chosen an uphill course on good hard packed trail with a spiteful gradient – too steep to run with any degree of comfort and not steep enough to walk.

The team

The team

Several teams had recently returned from the World Mountain Running Championships in Bulgaria. First up were the U20 men with favourites being Euan Gillham (Scotland) who placed 13th in the world championships and Ciaran Lewis (Wales)who placed 36th in the same race. The past was fast and furious from the outset with the Northern Ireland team doggedly trying to match the pace being set up Spooney Green Lane. The field was soon strung out along the course and Euan Gillham duly confirmed his status as favourite winning quite comfortably in a time of 30:55 followed by Ciaran Lewis in 32:47.

First home for Northern Ireland was Scott McKeague (20th) closely followed by Oisin Brennan (21st), Aaron Harrison (22nd) and Ethan Dunn (25th)

Some view

Some view

The U17 mens race started a little further up the course buy generic wellbutrin online from the U20 start, very close to the steepest part of the course. Race favourite was Nathan Smith who placed an outstanding 24th in the U20 World Championships. The pace was no less intense than in the U20 race and from the off the field quickly strung out. Once again the favourite obliged with Nathan Smith winning in a time of 20:44. First home for Northern Ireland was Jack O’Farrell in 19th place followed by Peter Gracey (22nd), Joel Harrison (24th ) and Dan Campbell (25th)

Highlights of the weekend were the ever youthful Jim Hayes being mistaken for a competitor at the start of the U20 race and Dan Campbell’s B sample coming back negative with beetroot juice levels within normal range

U17 team

U17 team

And so it is onto Scotland, the hosts in 2017 but the talk amongst the Northern Ireland Teams was the possibility of hosting in 2018 and a course on home turf with some mud, technical descending and thick mist. Rumour has it that Phil Hodge has recently been seen on Kilbroney Red Bog with map, Garmin and chinagraph pencil

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