Erinn leaves mark with golden display
ERINN Leavy was the star of the show for Dunleer AC as the mid Louth club captured a good haul of medals in Sunday’s second round of the Louth Cross-Country Championships on the Cooley Peninsula.
Competing in the Girls Under-11 1500m, Erinn left all the other runners in her wake as she powered home to a fantastic victory.
Also very impressive for Dunleer were the Boys Under-13 2,500m team in a race where the pace was phenomenal from start to finish.
On this evidence, spectators must have been watching some of the best runners in the province in that age group and it’s hats off to the eventual winner Neil Culhane from Boyne AC who put on a wonderful display of dogged, powerful running.
Culhane was chased all the way by the Dunleer AC contingent, with James Russell second, Tiernán Rowley third, Patrick Farrell fourth, Blake Kennedy sixth and Matthew McEntee 10th. Overall, it was a super team effort from the Dunleer AC boys to secure gold in the team competition with 15 points and a winning margin of 16.
There were plenty of other brilliant performances from Dunleer AC too. In the Boys Under-15 3,500m, for example, there was a runaway 1-2 for Kian Leavy and Peter Meegan who dominated from start to finish.
Young Dáire Matthews was a great winner of the Boys Under-9 Championship with his signature sprint finish, with teammate Jamie O’Brien seventh. Sally Sheridan was a very gutsy third in the Girls Under-9 equivalent, with teammate Grace Gormley close behind.
In the Boys Under-11 race Ciarán Russell had a great fifthplace finish, while Erinn Leavy and Lucy Sheridan had a onetwo in the Girls Under-11 event. These girls had a great victory in the team event, winning by a clear 10 points.
Theresa Russell battled with Blackrock AC’s Neasa Reilly in the Girls Under-15 3,500m, eventually coming away with a well deserved silver, and in the final race of the day Danny O’Brien finished fifth in the Boys Under-17 5,000m.
The Intermediate Men’s team had to be content with fourth place, but there were great performances all the same from their team members, with Pat Fitzpatrick sixth, Ray Hughes ninth, Anthony Connolly 12th and Mark Carroll 19th, while the finishing sprint of the day came from Anthony Connolly.