Iveragh girls pick up bronze

DUNGARVAN in Waterford was the setting for the Munster Juvenile Inter-Club Cross-Country Relays and the Munster Masters Cross-Country Championships last Sunday. The day was cold but sunny as athletes from all over the province converged on St Augustine’s College.

In the Juvenile relays there were bronze medals for the Iveragh AC’s U-14 girls team. The team of Maeve Daly, Brianna O’Sullivan, Aoife and Rachel Dwyer and Leanne O’Sullivan, now progress to national level when the take part at the All-Ireland inter-club relays in Tuam, Galway on January 22.

In the Masters championships it was a very successful weekend for An Riocht athletes. A fantastic overall win for Tim O’Connor in Masters Men saw him take gold in the O-35 category and with club mates Patrick O’Connor (6th), Sean O’Sullivan (10th) and Tommy O’Brien (13th) win gold in the O-35 club section.

There were silver county team medals in the men’s O40 age group with Tony Harty (Killarney Valley) finishing in fifth place overall, and second in the O-40 category, to join the An Riocht men. Robert Purcell from Gneeveguilla took 20th place overall and third place O-45 and also competing on the day was team mate John Barrett who was third O-50 and 38th overall.

The An Riocht women’s team were also hugely successful winning O-45 team gold with Niamh O’Sullivan (4th), Sharon Cahill (8th), Suzanne Neilan (15th), Mary O’Connor (20th), Liz Heaslip (30th) and Helena Shanahan (53rd). Niamh also won gold in the O-50 age category with Sharon Cahill in 2nd place while Helena took silver in the O-55 bracket. Fine running from Niamh, Sharon, Mary and Caroline Murphy from Gneeveguilla (who finished 24th overall) secured gold team medals for the county.

Many of the An Riocht ladies will be part of senior club team who run in the National Cross Country Championships in Abbotstown next weekend.

Maria McCarthy (Farranfore Maine Valley) continued her excellent form of late, finishing in second place overall and winning gold in the O-40 group. Also competing for Farranfore was Bernie O’Mahony (26th).