A dreary wet morning cleared in time for the County Senior cross country championships hosted by Thomastown AC today. KCH men, despite short some athletes (Eoin Everard, Toss Hayes etc) were out to retain the title. This they did, for the ninth consecutive time, ably assisted by the return from injury of Veterans Brian Maher and Paul Moran. New member, Ger Forde, recently transferrred from Wexford, took the individual title and the silver went to Brian Maher. With James Ledingham taking fourth place the A team would be hard to beat. Eamon O’Connor 9th and Graham Bourne 12th made sure the shield stayed in the city. The men weren’t finished just yet. With the aforementioned Paul Moran 22nd, Diarmuid Cullen 24th, David Lawlor 28th and Andy Hanrahan 30th the club won bronze in the B division.
The ladies had, potentially, a strong side but with a number being reserved for next Sunday’s All-Ireland and the Europeans the following week it was a much slimmer team that took to the “hill” run. Running well they placed fourth club. The team was 10th Niamh Richardson, 11 Claire Dermody, 14 Caoilfhionn Ni hArgain, 18 Kate Millea, 20 Anne Marie Shorthall.
Very few of our juveniles reported for the B Championships held in conjuction with the Seniors. The few who attended had a great boost to their confidence with excellent running. The girls in particular were shining examples. Kate Kelly took gold in the under 10 race as did Hannah Quinn in the under 16 race. Silver was the outcome for the Cormack sisters – Ellen in under 12 and Eimear in under 14. Under 11 athlete Peter Quinn was 8th under 12 and new-comers Conor Malone and Aidan Malone were 6th and 17 th in their respective races. Really well done boys and girls.