ATHLETICS

WICKLOW athletes made history recently when the team won the county team event at the Leinster Senior Cross County championships in Adamstown, Co. Wexford, and the Slí Cualann squad claimed their first ever Leinster senior medals when they finished second in the club competition.

The Slí Cualann ladies senior team claimed the silver medals when they ran superbly and together with Una Britton, of Kilcoole AC, who was the overall winner of the race, the ladies also took the county team gold medals.

Running a great race from the word go, Una Britton stormed home to victory while Ashling Smith finished in eighth place, Niamh Kearney in 11th, Catherine O’Connor in 20th, Claire Earls in 23rd, Lynne Duffy in 29th position, Ann Marie Kenny in 32nd and Katie O’Connor in 34th on what was a wonderful day’s racing from the Wicklow women.

The Slí Cualann team only lost out by two points in the club competition.

In the men’s race, Clive Quinn of Slí Cualann finished in 15th place, a mere five seconds off the top 10 thanks to a fantastic race. Tim Grummell finished in the 30s with Tony Redmond and Tony Gartland to be commended for their efforts.

More recently, Kilcoole AC’s Una Britton finished in 16th place in the national cross county cham- pionships with Slí Cualann once again featuring among the medals when they claimed the silver medals in the club competition in the ‘B grade on the day.

It’s an exciting few weeks in Wicklow athletics with Fionnuala McCormack set to run in the ‘Jingle Bells’ race in Phoenix Park this coming weekend as a warm up to the European Cross County Championships in Slovakia on December 10.

Also on December 10 will be the Wicklow Cross County Championships at Avondale House with the start time still to be confirmed but it is expected that it might be a later than usual start due to Fionnalua McCormack being in action early in the morning in Slovakia.