A soft field greeted the athletes arriving in Ballycurran Cross today for the first round of the cross country championships. The ground might be soft but the competition was tough. The club had two girls in the opening under 8 race. Rachel Fahy placed 6th and Caoimhe Malone was 12th. 

Then it was into the championship proper with the under 10s. The girls did well and won the silver medals (4 Aoibhinn Kelly, 7 EllaO’Flaherty, 8 Malla Cronin, 11 Aoibhinn Lacey). Dara O’Callaghan was our sole representative in the boys race. This he did in fine style by cruising to the front to take the gold.

The under 12 girls fought hard and were a little unlucky to finish fourth. Sinead Cormack set the pace for the team and won individual bronze. Kara Canavan was 9th and Ellen Cormack, just outside the automatic county qualifiers, in 13th. Maia Sokal and Amy Byrne making their debut in championship cross country were 29th and 30 respectively. The under 12 boys had a more compact team than the girls and the result was that they won team medals for second place. They were helped enormously by under 11 athlete Dara O’Flaherty leading them in in 5th. The other team members were 8 Thomas Hayes, 9 Shay Molloy, 14 Aidan Malone and 16 Fiach Crowley.

The under 14 girls had six runners for the team and this helped them take first place. Great running by Clodagh O’Callaghan saw her cross the finish line in first place. Backing her up were 5 Eimear Cormack, 7 Evelyn McEvoy, 8 Aine Foley, 13 Ellie Millea and 15 Aoibhe Quinn. Our  only boy was Paul Millea who won the individual bronze.

Sadly we had no girls reporting for the under 16 race. The Boys however were in top form and won gold with 2 Paddy Kelly, 3 Ruairi McEvoy, 4 Eoin O’Callaghan and 5 Sean Young.

There was disappointment for our under 18 girls when a full panel failed to turn up. This was a pity as Maeve Richardson, Alexia Albertin and Eleanor Godden finished 2nd, 3rd and 4th respectively.

It was a similar story for our NOVICE LADIES wth just three registering  – 2 Maeve Richardson, 4 Eleanor Godden, 7 Aisling Gannon. The MASTER O/40 LADIES were better prepared and were clear winners with 1 Niamh Richardson, 3 Sheila O’Callaghan, 4 Kate Millea and 8 Aisling Gannon. The NOVICE MEN  were second in the “B” with 2 Paddy Walsh, 8 David Devine, 12 Sean O’hArgain. Eoin O’Shea was 11th in NOVICE “A”. The MASTERS MEN  had 13 David Devine, 14 Eoin O’Shea and 18 Sean O’hArgain.

MARATHON PEOPLE

LONDON – Claire Dermody had a fab run in the London Marathon with a finish time of 3hrs 14 mins.

BELFAST – A number of athletes travelled to Belfast for the marathon which this year included Athletics Ireland national marathon. Graham Bourne (M45) had a great race to clock 2.47.28. John O’Donnell (M40) also impressed with 2.50.09. Scoring slightly over the three hours were Andy Hanrahan, Ciaran Hughes, Seamus Kavanagh and Tony Lauhoff. A bit further adrift was Mervin Doyle. Among the lady finishers were Caoimhe Foley, Anita byrne, AnneMarie Shortall,  Una Byrne, Breegeen Murphy, Ann Brett and Dee Scott.