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The Striders Masters squad of John McGrath, Alan O’Connor, Ted Flannelly, Pat O’Callaghan, John Kent, Emmett Malone and Gavin Kelly raced to an emphatic team victory at a wet and windy Wexford Masters cross-country event held at Lingstown.

With McGrath, O’Connor and Flannelly finishing second, third and fourth respectively, all eyes were on O’Callaghan who secured gold as the fourth scoring team member with another great finish.

In addition, John and Alan won individual medals as did Ted, who won gold in his category. We also had two teams in the Masters ladies. With a competitive field medals were hard to come by, but brilliant running was produced with some strong home run sprints.

Huge congratulations to Sonya Byrne, Catherine Ronan, Lettie Roche, Beth O’Connor, Sinéad Donovan and Aine Cullen. Special mention to Catherine Ronan who was unlucky to come in contact with the muck, but ran a great race to finish barely outside a category medal position - the ups and downs of cross-country. Equally impressive were Elaina Browne, who claimed gold in the Junior women’s event, and Aedan Rogers, who won silver in the Junior men’s event. Elaina and Aedan have come through the Striders under-age system and are now more than holding their own with the Seniors. Well done to the eight Striders teams which competed in tough cross-country conditions and came home with a bucket-full of medals at the Wexford Juvenile relay cross-country, also at Lingstown.

The Under-10 boys got us off to a fantastic start, with Eanna Grennan leading us off strongly. Shane Cummins and Rúairí Lyng were excellent in the middle legs, as was Jack Murphy who was gaining all the way to the line on the two leading teams, to secure a bronze medal. Super-sub Gearóid Byrne was cheering the boys on from start to finish and was ready to jump in at a second’s notice.

Next up were the Under-12 boys - Eoin Hannon, Sam Myers, Seán Lennon, Ronan Shannon and Donnacha McCarthy - who won a silver medal.

The Under-14 girls - Kelly Corbett, Ciara Murphy, Isabel Bawden, Ruby Murphy and Aoife Lyng - were desperately unlucky not to win a medal, but finished a very creditable fourth place in a big field. The Under-14 boys entered two quality teams and in a very exciting finish, Darragh Flannelly edged out Aidan Shannon as the Striders won gold and silver. Running the earlier legs were Finn Kelly, Myles Hewlett, Cosmo Hewlett, Oisín Mac Eochaidh, Owen Lennon and Eoin Shannon.

Also lining up with two teams were the Under-16 girls who also managed two medals, silver and bronze. Well done to Eve Byrne, Erinn Shannon, Louise Doyle, Aisling Power, Leah Myers, Aoife Nic Eochaidh, Clodagh Foran and Ellie Quinn.

Last but not least were our Under-16 boys’ team of Aaron Browne, Ryan Kielthy, Cian Flanagan and Adam O’Connor. After winning a Leinster relay medal earlier this month, it was no surprise that they ran out gold medal winners in this Wexford event.

Seven team medals is quite an impressive haul at county standard. Well done to all athletes who participated.