The Irish Intervarsity Cross Country Championships took place last Saturday 4th of March. The event was hosted by Trinity in their grounds in Santry.

This year a graduate event was held. Partipation was low, the majority of athetes being Trinity alumni. If this event were to become a regular fixture it could attract more athletes and be an exciting edition to the IUAA calendar, providing more exposure and attracting more attention.

The womens intervarsity race was 4km long. The DCU team dominated. Their first 4 scoring athletes finished in the top 5, selections for the World Student games gauranteed for 2. The UCD women competed strongly and put on by far their most impressive performance of the season so far. They beat UCC into 3rd and Trinity (who had beaten them in the colours match 2 weeks earlier) into 4th. Lead home by the team captain Ruth Mills in 9th, the next 3 scorers were Cora Russell, Eilis Connery & Hillary Hughes.

The mens race was expected to be a lot closer than the womens. In the road relay championships in October the gap between the DCU and UCD teams was just seconds. Both teams also had first string athletes missing. DCU's most noted absence was Danny Darcy. They were also forced to compete without Aidan Bailey who ran the race as a guest, his name having not been present on the DCU team list pre-race. UCD were without Phil Conway, Neil Cowzer, John Courell and James Nolan.

The race itself was over a 10km, 6 lap course (very well prepared by Trinity Organising committee). Right the way through the race was tight. Joe Sweeney of UCD took the race to his rivals forcing a 50 yard gap early on. Mark Christie followed with Mick Clohissey making up the top 3. DCU were packing well behind, showing off their great depth of ability. The top 6 UCD athletes worked hard to keep places and to squeeze DCU for places. Christie overtook Sweeney at around 6km through and held on untill the finish. Sweeney took 2nd with Clohissey registering another impressive performance (after nationals the week previously) in 3rd. Alan McCormack and John Eves battled with Ian Cheney and Eoin Higgins in the following pack, and Garrett Coughlan pushed hard just a few places back. Veteran of intervarsity events Keith Daly made up the UCD 6 scorers finishing 35th. It was another epic race which demanded huge efforts from both teams.

The result was unconfirmed untill the presentation later that evening. The mens team first place prize was awarded to UCD. There was some confusion and protest upon the anouncement as had Aidan Bailey who finished 6th and was 3rd DCU man across the finish line been allowed to score for the DCU team they would have won. Strict IUAA rule enforcement, something many have come to expect and respect at these championships, crowned UCD the champions.

"I am very proud of what the UCD teams achieved last Saturday on the country. It was the culmination of a lot of hard work from both the individual athletes and those members of the club that take on the administrative responsibilities. The team spirit that was displayed out on the course at the weekend was equal to that experienced at the Road Relays last semester. No matter what, we can say that we currently have a mens and womens distance team that are on top of their game." Hugo Leeney UCDAC Mens Captain.

Full results are available on www.results.iuaa.org.