It was a long treck for athletes and their supporters to North West Donegal for this years Even Ages, Junior, U23 and Senior All-Ireland cross-country championships. It was a well organised event – good course, well marshalled, good parking facilities.
KCH had 26 athletes taking part and the end result was thirteen medals won by them. While winning a medal at national level is a fine honour, qualifying for a national final also merits recognition. Our under 12s gave us plenty to cheer about. With huge numbers taking part the results were excellent. Amelia O’Brien 66th, Emma Kelly 69th, Hannah Ryan 120th and Daire O’Flaherty 56th.
Sinead Cormack was our sole rep in the u14 girls and what a run she gave us. Finishing 21st she was first scorer on the county team and scoring on the Leinster team she won a bronze medal. Kyrell Mtinsi was inspirational. Mixing it with the front runners from the start he was still strong at the finish and won individual bronze and also gold with the Leinster team. Robert Coogan was also in good form to take 20th place and was second scorer on the county team.
Cristina Capitan Martin was our leader for the under 16s. Following an excellent run and finishing 31st she was second scorer on the county team. Next in for the club team was Eimear Cormack (97) with Kate Aylmer (98) on her heels. Evelyn McEvoy (141) completed the scoring for the team.
We had four fine competitors in the boys U18. 4th Billy Coogan, 45 Ruairi McEvoy, 57 Matthew McCarty and 62nd Paddy Kelly. They finished fifth club team and all four scored on the County team which placed third thus earning each an All-Ireland medal. In addition Billy won a gold medal as he was first finisher on the winning provincial team.
We had six athletes competing in the junior races. Hannah Kehoe had a very fine run n the junior ladies but finishing 4th she just missed out on a medal. We had five in junior men – the four under 18s plus Cathal O’Reilly. They finished in fifth place in the inter-club competion. The Kilkenny team won bronze with four of the lads scoring – Cathal, Billy, Ruairi and Matthew.
Ella Richardson ran in the under 23 race which was run in conjunction with the senior race. Running a steady pace she was 59th overall and 14th under 23.
One athlete, Aoibhe Richardson, represented the club in the senior ladies. A very competitive race and Aoibhe did well keeping with the leading pack throughout and finished well in sixth place. Seven men took to the start line for the senior men’s race. What a race that proved to be. Our team had hopes of gaining a medal place but that wasn’t to be as they finished fourth just 19 points adrift of third placed Mullingar who won the bronze with 100 points. But that wasn’t the full story as Peter Lynch gave all the Kilkenny gang a race to remember. Peter having arrived from Tulsa, Oklahoma on Thursday showed no inkling of jet lag. He mixed it with the front runners from the start and from an early stage in the race he looked a reasonable bet for a podium finish. With 300m to go there were four vying for three places. McElhinney, Gidey, Tonosa and Peter. McElhinney made a decisive move and the others followed. A fast finish by McElhinney brought him over the line in first place. His time 29.59. Tonoso was second 30.03 and Peter third in 30.06 and a guaranteed place on the team for the international in Turin.