Peter’s crew off to a flyer in ‘cross’

ST PETER’S AC had nine representatives across the various age groups as the local cross-country season kicked off on Sunday with the traditional opener at Stamullen, hosted by Star of the Sea AC.

The first race of the busy programme was the Girls Under-9, with both Emily (7th) and Hannah (11th) finishing just outside the podium places. This was the girls’ first experience of a cross-country race featuring such big numbers and both of them would have gained valuable experience.

Orla McLoughlin ran very strongly in the Girls Under-10 after a bad start and was passing her competitors right up to the finish line which was a great boost for her confidence.

Her training buddy Dearbhla Allen was next up in the Girls Under-11 race over 1,000m and had a great run and took her place on the podium with a fifth-place finish.

Harry O’Reilly showed his potential when leading the Boys Under-11 race from the start. Harry has had a few injuries lately and it was great to see him having the confidence to take the race on, although he couldn’t quite maintain his pace until the end and had to be content with a sixth-place finish.

The Under-13 girls race was run over a 1500m course and both competing St Peter’s girls battled very well and finished strongly, with Niamh Brady in ninth and Julie McLoughlin 10th.

The last race concerning St Peter’s was the Boys Under-13 which was 1800m. Cian Gorham, making his long-awaited debut, ran really well to finish third and was closely followed by Sean Allen in fourth. Both of the lads had really strong runs - reward for their recent dedication to training.

Next Sunday sees the opening day of the Louth Cross-Country Championships which the St Peter’s club will host at the Louth GAA Centre at Darver.

Day one will see the novice women and men races, followed by the even-age races for juveniles.

The programme kicks off at 11am, with the juvenile races starting at noon.