 Miles Gallagher it's good to see you. For years you were sitting on this side of the desk but we've flipped you around so we have as we look forward to a very exciting event. Good to talk to you again Miles. Good to talk to you Ashen and I'm not sure what side of the fence I'd like to be on to tell you guys this. Maybe give a better end. Oh listen you're going to be out in the wind and the rain come Sunday the 20th of November Miles. It's of course the national senior and cross country championships which are taking for just the second time in the county. It's down at the Rossapenna Hotel and Gulf Resort at the driving range there across the road and it's been hosted by Cranford AC. You're going to be part of it too Miles. It's a very unique and special event to have to the county and it's a special one for Cranford AC. It certainly is Ashen yeah these championships cross country championships began in 1881 and as you mentioned they're just the second time coming to Dunneagall and we're delighted to be able to host it in the parish of Meeva up here just outside Downings, down between Downings and Kerry Gert and there's a big day obviously for Cranford Athletic Club the first club in Dunneagall founded by Evan Giles and the late Jim Hunter back in 1961 and Evan Giles as you know still going strong chairman of the club top coach and has brought many many athletes national titles and indeed many of them that were members of Cranford Athletic Club have gone on to be Olympians, Internationals, others that have formed clubs so I suppose you could call them Mr Athletics in Dunneagall. Yeah it certainly is and it was rightly of course honored with that Miles and recent years at the at the Dunneagall Sports Star Awards but this course that's going to be designated and designed out now for the national cross countries it's it's nothing new to Cranford AC it's an area that they train on regularly down there and it's in good condition I suppose there's a good surface that links type surface at a driving range and at a golf course is very much suited across country running Miles. Sure is you you're down yourself for the Legends Tour down there at the Rosa Pena and you saw the the type of terrain that's there but it's exactly the same across the road at the driving range. I suppose we had to get a venue Evan and the club have been down in the Rosa Pena for 25 plus years courtesy of the Casey family. Evan asked the question again any chance of having an event down there I think my brother Jerry was heavily involved as well and they took a look at the venue across the road and experts came and looked at it to see would it be suitable and they gave it a thumbs up big time because of the type of terrain that's there and they'll have a nice compact 1500 meter course divided into 1000 meters and 500 meters and the emphasis now is on fast running cross country as distinctive what used to be in the good old days when we were trying to run through muck up to the knees but nowadays it's about speed because this will lead on to the European cross country championships which will be taking place in Turin three weeks after the event in in downings so it's ideal from that point of view and it's I suppose in the long run a lot of these athletes are also track runners so that will help them as well so it'll be good for their endurance along the way and then good for their trackability later on. Yeah you mentioned about the I suppose the delegation from Athletics Ireland which have come to Donegal and come to Rosa Pena to look at the course and one man that was part of that is a Donegal man of course Paddy Marley he'd be quite happy to be seeing the event coming to the northwest. Yes a former Cranford Athletic Club member he joined Edmund and the gang way back in the let's say early to mid 60s subsequently went to Dublin I asked him the question did you go to Dublin for work in 69 or did you well actually it was earlier or did you go to compete in athletics and he said it was to compete in athletics and he was a very happy man when he made the Irish international team in the 1500 meters against Switzerland back in 69 but he's now a well recognised official with Athletics Ireland he's on the competitions committee and it's the competitions committee that run this event so he had the right and the honour as had Brendan McDade of letter Kenny Athletic Club he also was on the senior committee and they were part of the team came down as a matter of fact Mark Connolly of Finvally is on the juvenile committee so it just shows the influence that Donegal athletes have and organisers have in athletics Ireland they have mushroomed from that first beginning of Cranford Athletic Club to be a very high powered people in athletics so they came anyway delighted with the course beautiful day when they were there and to give Cranford to go ahead and a lot of work going into the action since and there will be a lot more between now and the 20th of November yeah you might just give us an idea might as sort of the manpower and maybe the women power that's that's needed for this on the on the volunteer front because Cranford are hosting it they're going to need help from I suppose other clubs within the county and there's a huge number of officials that are that are coming in to make sure that this event runs smoothly as well Miles well yeah there sure is for example in relation to athletics Ireland they have 70 officials coming to the area to run the show you know you wouldn't expect um novices let's call us from the point of view and have a national event to be running uh such a big event so they are coming to run the show but they need 80 volunteers from the local club so there are many there are many streams to the whole thing if I just could give you an idea of some of the things that are required for example you're going to this is now above and beyond the actual course so you have parking and traffic management we are supposed to and will supply at least 1500 car parking facilities 1500 so what's happening in the relation to that is that the the local voluntary fire service probably the only one in Ireland the Irish Coast Guard Monroy unit based in the parish they're based in Downing's fire service and based in Kerrygaard and the guard the sheikhana are coming together to put that traffic management system in place with volunteers from the club as well so that's only one example you have then what do we have the presentation area has to be built the registration check-in area the tip timing obviously a big factor the results area the first aid area would have to have two ambulances on site as well as first aid people they get a big area as well the entrance the different people the athletes have to get in a certain way the spectators have to get in a certain way there's going to be you would have to buy your ticket online to get in so that's only an example of some of the things that are required to host the thing there's going to be catering as well has to be done possibly outsiders possibly within the group themselves so but we have the leaders the leaders are there been there done that and it will be a great success and hopefully the weather will be reasonably good yeah and any visitors coming to the county will obviously get a the great Donegal welcome that that they always do miles and from those that are competing I suppose letter Kenny and fun valley who were successful in 2021 that's now in their home county they'll look in they'll be looking to defend titles that they won they certainly will maybe if I just run through how the Donegal athletes this is the senior athletes and we'll maybe mention the underage as well later but the senior women last year letter Kenny athletic club with the winners the defeated Lee Vale fairly tight I think there's 11 points in the difference so letter Kenny defending their championship down in the Rasa Pena the senior ladies will Michelle Finn of leave a athletic club she is an Olympian she was the winner last year Roshan Flanagan the Tarone lady running for Finn Valley she finished in third and Anne Marie Mclin of letter Kenny finished in sixth and the combination of all the Donegal female athletes won the intercounty beating Cork and Dublin so it's not every day that Donegal are going to be able to beat two big cities like Cork and Dublin and in the junior women's event Finn Valley were the winners last year from Yohal down in Cork and Ennis track club so again they'll be defending their title down in the Rasa Pena so and there will be others athletes very strong in Donegal and as well as the seniors and under 20s and under 23s you also have the under 12 14 16 18 it's it's even age group competition and as you know on a Sunday after Sunday from Fatsy McGonigal Donegal athletes do very well in Ulster and indeed in national competition. Yeah I'm just thinking here Miles we're talking about letter Kenny and Finn Valley we can't forget about the host Cranford they'll be looking to put up a big show on their home turf so they will. Well they will indeed and they competed in the Ulster championships under 12 to under 18 there was eight races in total and two of the winners the individual winners came from the Cranford athletic club so that's 25 percent as numbers of athletes competing against the rest they didn't have 25 percent so they were punching away above their wit and they qualified a team and many individuals as well to compete for either the club or the county or indeed province in that age group you're talking about provinces as well so they have three chances of bringing national medals to the to the area. Yeah on the international front miles as we know last year Ireland picked up gold in the under 23 men and they also had silver as well on the under on the under 20 and there's several of those athletes will be coming back to try and retain national titles and medals that they wanted at a national level so it makes it even more competitive when you take it outside of the local runners what we expect from those who are coming from I suppose a level where they have already tasted success at a European level. Exactly so it just shows the standard of the sport on a European basis when you have an Irish team under 23 winning the international under 23 and as you say the under 20s finish in the second place and on that under 23 team many of them are actually eligible to compete again so they'll be fighting among themselves first of all to get on the Irish team I think it's the first three are automatically selected and then it's up to the team selection thereafter because some of these athletes could be a scholarship in American so on but it just shows the standard can I make a comparison I'm not running down soccer don't get me wrong the point is that you may remember there very recently Ireland were trying to qualify for the European under 21 soccer championships to get to the finals for the first time ever and here we have at the roughly the same age under 23s winning European titles so that's the level that they're at so anybody that's anxious to see top-class athletics live the place to be is the Rosapena golf resort driving range on the 20th of November. Yeah I know we mentioned the M&J's at the start he doesn't get too excited about things Miles does he? Well a fear of the job for 61 years you seem to be able to handle all that at your ease as it were it's not that he's not passionate about it because I can assure you he has been passionate for the last 61 years and well it shows in the results and it rubs off on the results and I'll give you a good example a little bit of a I suppose an ad from the from the Cranford Athletic Club podcast where I've been speaking with Amber Barrett very recently it would be gone up on the Cranford's YouTube and Facebook page and she gave a glowing recommendation for what she did as an athlete before she turned to soccer and how it's actually helping her now in her soccer you know she got that wonder goal that takes the Irish team to the World Championships in Australia and New Zealand but she gave a glowing recommendation to what Eamon had done and and even in the training that she does now in Germany she's using tips that Eamon gave her back in the day. Brilliant, brilliant, delighted to hear that and Eamon of course will be would have been very very proud of Amber and her recent achievements and we'll be speaking to Eamon in the coming days ahead of the event and all the man we'll be speaking to as well Miles is Mr John Cronin president of Athletics Ireland and native again to the to the parish down there and then he moved away from home but with him being president and now a national event in the county as well it's huge for him and his tenure. It sure is yeah it's a great honour for the whole area yes that John has done so well well John showed leadership qualities back in PCC Falkara as a 14, 15, 16 year old he kind of took on the mantle of organizing athletics down there he took that forward then to a UCG as it was back then and he was on the last winning cross-country team from UCG to win the Interversity until two years ago they won it again and they actually defended there this year so then he went to Tullamore Harriers where he moved up the ladder there was a party larkin there that fantastic man for athletics he built the stadium down in Tullamore without any state assistance back then he became moved up the ladder became chairman went on then to to Lenster and moved up the ladder there and eventually became president of athletics Ireland and it's it's great that it's that he's coming home to his own parish as president of that organization. Certainly as listen Miles we'll be talking more closer to the time about the national cross-country championships which are coming back to Donegal after a 23 year absence you're going to have a busy number of weeks as well always good to see you Miles and good to talk to you. The same to you Oshun and we certainly will see and I'm sure you'll be down to to to the venue on that Sunday to report back and and I just mentioned that another group are coming here that's Eileen Magner an RTE she's coming down the week before to do a better recording and she'll be down on the Sunday and of course we have live streaming it's the first time the senior cross-country championships will have live streaming and eight out of ten productions from Milford Peter Adonalds a man behind that you'll have five cameras a drone a commentator at the venue commentator on stream that's we're trying to push the boat out as best we can. What you're going to tell me is putting you into helicopter Miles for commentary. No I'm not doing any commentary. Listen Miles good to see you all the bases covered there good man. Talk to you soon Miles. Thank you Oshun. Thanks guys. Bye bye.