A fruitful adventure for Wexford athletes
Relatively small bunch of competitors from Model county collect fine haul of medals County collect fine haul of medals
THE Navan Adventure Centre was the venue for last Saturday’s Irish Life Health All-Ireland Juvenile & Novice Cross Country.
Driving to Navan from Wexford certainly was somewhat of an adventure as the wind howled and the rain fell in torrents.
Surely the organisers would not ask children to compete in such conditions.
Yet you can be sure that there were ancients in the back seats of cars travelling from the four corners on Saturday morning reminiscing about the brave runners lost in the quagmire that was Ballyhaise in 1988 or the unforgiving muck of Ballinlough in 1994!
As it turned out the weather was a little more benign in Navan with showers in place of incessant rain and a stiff breeze as opposed to hurricane force gusts.
And, to everyone’s surprise, the sod remained firm throughout with very little cutting up on what was a well designed, albeit tough, course.
It was a good day overall for Wexford with a relatively small squad of athletes collecting a fine haul of individual, club and provincial medals.
Emma McCarthy of St. Killian’s AC placed 27th in the Girl’s U-11 race.
She missed making the silver medal winning Leinster team by a single place.
Next Wexford girl home was Grace Kelly, Menapians AC, in 34th with Kilmore’s Rayna Thompson just behind her in 35th.
Éabha Keane (DMP) placed 46th, Ava Wolohan (Croghan AC) 82nd, Sarah O’Mahony (DMP) 92nd, Erin Byrne (Croghan) 98th, Ava Barry (Kilmore) 105th, Heather Costello (United Striders) 124th, Stephanie O’Connor (Enniscorthy AC) 144th.
Wexford’s only finisher in the Boys U-11 1500m was Bree’s Cian Donovan in 59th place.
Kevin O’Mahony (DMP) found the going tough in the Boys U-13 2500m race, finishing in 42nd place.
Claragh Keane of DMP has been having a powerful season, improving with each race.
Her coach, the hugely experienced John Joe Doyle, has helped her to develop the core strength required to stay the distance in the toughest of cross country races.
Claragh cut a determined figure as she toed the line in the Girls U-15 3500m race.
From the gun she was up and away, tucked into the leading group.
Then calamity: rounding a bend she lost her footing and tumbled to the ground.
Quickly back on her feet she sensibly did not panic despite finding herself somewhere back in the 40s.
She put the head down and began to pick her way through the field.
Coming up to the start of the long hill to the finish she was back in the top six.
A spirited sprint finish saw her finish in a medal winning fifth place, in the process holding off the talented Fiona Dillon of Thomastown. Brilliant run.
As well as winning an individual medal, Claragh was a scorer on the Leinster gold medal winning team.
Wexford’s top finishers in a tough Boys U-15 3500m race, won by St Senan’s uber-talented Tadhg Connolly, were the United Striders duo of Ben Wall (7th) and Myles Hewlett (8th).
The pair were pretty much inseparable and utterly consistent throughout the race, one feeding off the other.
With four athletes in the top 10 and six in the top 15, it was no surprise that Leinster took the Provincial Team title meaning that, along with their individual medals, Ben and Myles won Team Gold medals.
They also led Striders to Club Team Gold with Aidan Shannon in 46th place and Eoin Shannon 49th completing the scoring quartet.
The club had three further athletes in the top 100 with Robert Wall 70th, Darragh Flannely 77th and Owen Lennon 97th. James Hegarty of DMP placed 110th.
The county’s only participant in the Girls U-17 4000m race was Roisin O’Reilly of Menapians AC.
After 200m Róisín was part of a large leading group which held together for much of the first of the two 2,000m laps.
Into the second lap and this group was much reduced in size, Róisín still with them.
Two girls, Aimee Hyde and Lucy Holmes, pulled slightly ahead at this point; Róisín led the chasers.
With 500 to go the gold and silver looked to be decided while Róisín and Derry’s Cara Laverty battled it out for the bronze.
The Wexford girl got ahead at the start of the long drag to the finish and pushed ahead. Laverty sensed a weakening and rallied.
Róisín found herself having to give way in the end and settle for fourth with, as she said herself, “rubber legs”.
She was delighted to put in such a good run in her first Athletics Ireland National cross country. Winning a Leinster Team Silver medal was a bonus.
Adam O’Connor, United Striders, placed 94th in Boys U-17 5,000m race.
Aedan Rogers, also Striders, looked to be in contention in the early stages of the Boys U-19 6,000m race.
However, a mid-race fall knocked the wind out of his sails and he finished in 29th place.
Ger Forde of Slaney Olympic was hoping for a top ten finish in the Men’s Novice 6,000m.
However, by his own admission, he was feeling somewhat flat and couldn’t find that top gear.
Under the circumstances his 14th place finish was a good result. Mark Poole, Croghan AC, placed 79th and his clubmate Pat Foley was 88th; Alan O’Connor (US) was 124th, John Murphy (DMP) 132nd, Brian Maher (Croghan)146th, Alexander Williams (Croghan) 163rd, William Keogh (Croghan) 208th. The Wexford team were 10th overall.
Fixtures
December 18: NIA Live Juvenile & Senior - NIA, Abbotstown
January 12: AAI National Indoor League Round 1 - NIA, Abbotstown
January 13: Leinster Intermediate, Masters Cross Country & Juvenile Relays - Venue tbc
January 19: IAAF Northern Ireland International Cross Country including Celtic and Home Countries International - Belfast
January 19: Irish Life Health Indoor Combined Events All Ages
- AIT, Athlone
January 20: Wexford Masters, Juniors & Juvenile Relays Cross country Championships. Venue tba.
January 23 (7.30pm): Wexford Athletics AGM, Riverside Park Hotel, Enniscorthy
January 26: AAI National Indoor League Round 2 - AIT, Athlone
January 27: Irish Life Health Junior and U23 Indoors - AIT, Athlone