Athletes set for Navan test
Strong Wexford team ready
THE Irish Life Health National Novice and Juvenile (Uneven Ages) Cross Country Championships take place this Saturday at Navan Racecourse.
This is the same testing course that was used in October for the Leinster Even Ages and Junior Cross Country.
A strong Wexford under-11 girls team can get among the medals if they pack as well as they did at the Leinster championships in Adamstown.
On that occasion Emma McCarthy of St Killian’s was fifth, and Grace Kelly of Menapians was 10th. Both girls will be chasing top 12 places.
They are joined on the Wexford team by Rayna Thompson of Kilmore AC, DMP’s Éabha Keane, Sarah O’Mahony (DMP) and Ava Barry (Kilmore). Cian O’Donovan, Bree AC, runs the boys under-1 race having qualified in ninth place in Adamstown.
In the boys under-13 2,500m race, Kevin O’Mahony of DMP, also ninth in the Leinster championships and, more recently a medal winner in the All-Ireland under-12 race in Abbottstown, will be looking for a top 10 finish.
Another DMP runner, Claragh Keane, is in fantastic shape at present.
She narrowly missed out on taking a silver medal in the Leinster under-15 3,500m.
And just two weeks ago she placed eighth in a tough All-Ireland under-16 4,000m.
She will be hoping for a big result on Saturday. Both Ben Wall and Myles Hewlett of United Striders will be in the mix in the boys under-15 race. Ben was second and Myles third at the Leinsters.
More recently, Myles ran a fine race to take silver, and a team gold with Wexford, in the All-Ireland under-14 3,000m race.
Striders, as Leinster club champions, are sure to place among the top teams at the weekend. Róisín O’Reilly of Menapians has had her sights on this meet since resuming her winter training.
She ran a solid race in the under-17 race in Adamstown to place a close fourth.
If she can keep her head and stay strong in the latter half of the race she could register a big result.
Aedan Rogers of United Striders, a silver medalist in the under-19 6,000m in Adamstown, ran the Leinster Juniors on this course back in October.
Misfortune struck on that occasion as, cruising along in third place, he was forced to pull up with an injury.
He is now back to full health and is very much looking forward to making his mark.
Wexford has a county team, led by Slaney Olympic’s Ger Forde, running the Men’s Novice. Forde is in good shape at the moment and will be hoping for a top ten finish.
Croghan AC is the only Wexford club with a team entered in the race.
WALKINGCHAMPIONSHIPS
The Irish Life Health National Race Walking 30K/20K Championships took place in St. Anne’s Park Raheny last Saturday.
Ciara Mooney of Adamstown AC was a comprehensive winner of the Juvenile 1K walk in 5.38 mins. John Mooney, also Adamstown, was fourth in the Senior men’s 20k in a time of 1 hour 39 minutes.