Power hopeful of competing at inter-county meet

SEAMUS POWER was a notable absentee from last weekend’s cross-country squad training session at the ALSAA complex near Dublin Airport.

Despite a persistent back/hip problem, the Clare man is hopeful of competing at the national inter-county championships in Sligo on November 27.

“The situation is that I have been working in Dublin for the past six months and, at the moment, I get out training whenever I can,” he said. “But I have this problem with my hips and I am forever hoping that I will wake up some morning and it will have gone away. Until then I am living in hope.

“As regards the inter-counties, don’t rule me out just yet. I am training but maybe it is not as intense as it used to be. I have trained hard in the past and I know what it takes in terms of time and energy.

“The hunger is still there. I want to run again but when I don’t know.”

Power returned for the national cross-country championships last February and, despite a limited preparation, he finished fourth in a thrilling race. “It took a lot of effort. But I would do it all over again. Things are going well for our cross-country runners right now. We have some very good young athletes like Mark Christie and Martin Fagan coming through and Robert Connolly ran a course record in Dublin at the weekend.”

There was good news for the Irish team selectors at the weekend when Alistair Cragg returned to competitive running and finished second in a race in Arkansas.

“He has made himself available for selection for the European cross-country championships and that is very good news,” international secretary Liam Hennessy said.

This was his first competitive race since the European indoor championships in Madrid last March when he won the 3,000m title.

The teams for the European cross-country championships will be selected after the inter-county championships. Ireland will field full teams in all four events and the first three across the line in each race in Sligo on November 27 will gain automatic selection. Two weeks in advance of that AAI will send squads to Tilberg for their annual international cross-country meet.