Young guns ‘Ace’ it at freezing Blackrock meet
MEMBERS of Drogheda’s Ace AC refused to let the freezing temperatures dampen their spirits and they picked up a big haul of medals at Sunday’s annual Blackrock AC Cross-Country meeting.
The day started off with the Under-7s’ race of 100m and Ruairi Cooney - at just five years old - grabbed his first cross country medal when he achieved fourth place.
Nathan Robertson was the next to put on a stellar performance as he ran out of age in the Boys Under-11 event and managed a second-place silver medal.
The girls race of same age had a great turnout, with Naiya Semple, Lauren Faulkner, Olivia Nelson and Kate O’Donnell all giving it everything and missing out on a team medal by only two points!
The Under-13 Girls did fantastically well, with Sholah Lawrence achieving first place overall, teammate Chloe Cooney finishing fourth running out of age and Chloe Hanley and Kate Culhane both demonstrating excellent performances. These girls also brought home the first-place team medals.
The Under-13 Boys were superb also, with Lorcan Forde Dunne finishing in second place, his brother Tadhg running very well out of age and Rhys Clarke finishing in 10th place.
These three scooped second-place team medals, while clubmate Daniel Hanley did fantastic running out of age and Liam Lynch - racing for the very first time - gave a very strong performance.
Eimear Cooney was outstanding in the Girls Under-15 race, running out of age, and managed a very comfortable third place, while Isabella Garcia - also out of age - finished eighth.
However, the performance of the day belonged to Shea O’Donnell when he ran out of age in the Boys Under-15 2,000m. Gold was his until the very last second when he was pipped at the post but still finished a gallant runner-up.
The Girls and Boys Under-17 and Under-19 races were held together and Neil Culhane was strong from the start and finished in an impressive fourth place, while Callum Sheedy was the Under-19 Boys winner.