Heaslip defends Autumn Open title

SHONA Heaslip (An Riocht) defended her Senior Women’s title with ease at the Autumn Open International Cross-Country at the Sport Ireland National Sports Campus last Sunday covering the 6,000m distance in 20:05. In the Master Women, Niamh O’Sullivan (An Riocht) won the O-55 category and club mate Sharon Cahill placed second in the O-50 age bracket. Catriona Barry (Farranfore Maine Valley) finished 5th in the women’s O-45 event.

For the Master Men An Riocht’s James Doran was 6th O-35. Shauna Doellken O’Shea from Kenmare AC made a welcome return from injury to finish well up the field in the U-20 women’s race.

The Munster Juvenile Even Age, Novice and U-23 Cross-Country Championships were held on the same day in Beaufort with two titles coming to the Kingdom, with Luke Merrigan (Kenmare AC) winning the U10 boys and Niamh O’Mahony (An Riocht) taking gold in U18 girls.

Other fine individual performances were Jessie Lynch (Farranfore Maine Valley) 3rd in U-10 girls, Aaron Horgan (St. Brendan’s) 5th U-12 boys, Shauna McCarthy (Farranfore Maine Valley) 4th U-16 girls, Alyce O’Connor (Kenmare) 7th U-18 girls, and Oisin Spillane (Tralee Harriers) 5th in U18 boys.

While there were no club team medals won, bronze county medals went to the Kerry U-10 girls (Jessie Lynch Farranfore, Ciara Eager Star of the Laune, Ciara Kerins An Riocht, Sadhbh Cahill An Riocht, Elissa Hussey Kenmare, Tara O’Sullivan Killarney Valley), U-10 boys (Luke Merrigan Kenmare, Isaac Vickers Farranfore, Ben O’Connor St. Brendan’s, Dan O’Connor Tralee Harriers, Conor Lynch Killarney Valley, Kevin Horgan St.Brendan’s) and U-16 girls (Shauna McCarthy Farranfore, Deirdre Kelly Iveragh, Saoirse Tomkins Gneeveguilla, Maeve Daly Iveragh, Kerry Eager Star of the Laune, Grace Cahill An Riocht).

Mary Daly (Farranfore Maine Valley) was the well deserved winner of the Novice Women’s title – leading Kerry to county bronze medals along with club mate Maria McKenna, An Riocht’s Catherine O’Sullivan and Miriam Beasley from Star of the Laune. Eddie O’Connor (Lios Tuathail) was the highest placed finished in the Novice Men’s race, crossing the line in 3rd place.

There were silver club medals for An Riocht athletes Donal White, Tommy O’Brien, Martin Dineen and Trevor Dunne. County bronze went to Eddie O’Conor, Donal White, Tommy O’Brien, George McCarthy (Farranfore Maine Valley), Martin Dineen and John Heaphy (Lios Tuathail).