The curtain closed on the national cross country championships at a muddy venue in Cork today. One wonders if the mud is really necessary!! In any event twenty plus of our athletes competed and while there were no individual medals among the juvenile cohort there were many fine performances. Starting with the U11s – Kate Kelly in 36th was the first scorer on the county team. She had Ellen Ryan 161 and Mealla Crowley 164 in support. For the boys we had Darragh O’Callaghan n 31st place – scoring on the 3rd place Leinster team to earn himself an All Ireland medal.
Sinead Cormack was in fine form. Finishing in 18th place she was first scorer for the county and missed out on a medal with 4th placed Leinster team. The club team with Emma Kelly 87, Ellen Cormack 120 and Amelia O’Brien 136 were 14th club. Robert Coogan had a great run in the boys race. Placing 8th he was first scorer on the county team and third scorer on the Leinster team with which he won a gold medal.
Clodagh O’Callaghsan was in action for the U15 girls and finished 29th. That made her the first of the county team to cross the finish line and also earned her a bronze medal with Leinster. Kyrell Mtinsi was very much on his own with neither club nor county team for company. Not to worry, he took on the field and while still U14 he had an excellent run to finish 18th and win gold with Leinster.
Cristina Capital Martin had her best race of the season and finished 9th in the U17 race. First of the county team home but also winning gold with Leinster was a just return for her efforts. Aoife FitzGerald finished 105th. Ruairi McEvoy 34th and Paddy Kelly 51st were the first two of the county team to finish.
Eleanor Godden ran well for the U19s to finish 40th while Billy Coogan won silver with the Leinster team after an 11th place finish.
Our Novice ladies were both club team and county team placing 10th and 7th respectively. Ella Richardson ran well to place 15th. Completing the team were Maebh Maher 64, Cara Maher 80 and Caoilfhionn Ni hArgain 92. It’s great to have a team competing in this event. Cathal O’Reilly, finishing 3rd, was back in form and was our only individual medal winner this weekend. He also had the honour of being first scorer for the county team.