Trojan effort from Blackrock contingent
A BEAUTIFUL autumn morning at DKIT proved to be the ideal setting for a great series of races at Day 2 of the Louth Juvenile Cross Country Championships which was superbly hosted by the North East Runners.
Up first for the club were the Girls U9 team made up of Ashling Finegan, Faith Scanlon, Maeve Cunniffe, Rebecca McCormack and Robyn McKeown who kicked things off nicely with each young athlete completing the course in fine style.
Although no medals were won on the day all the girls should be happy with their efforts.
Another big field took to the line for the Boys U9 600m with Emmet Kearney leading the charge for the club and producing a great performance to finish in fifth place overall. Emmet was ably assisted in his efforts by Oisín Curran who ran exceptionally well to finish just a few places behind.
A team bronze was the reward for the efforts of Megan McEvoy, Grace Reilly, Caoimhe Doherty, Ailish Fee and Erin Braniff who made up the Girls U11 team, with each member giving their all over a very challenging 1500m. It was Megan who set the standard for her team with and an excellent 8th place finish followed closely by Grace with Erin, Caoimhe and Ailish packing well to cross the line not too far behind.
The biggest club entry of the day was made in the Boys U11 1500m race where Eoghan Sweeney, Daniel Delassa, Dillon Rowland, Hugo Nolan, James Scanlon and Nelson Obadey lined up in the yellow and blue. It was always going to be a tough race for the lads in a very competitive age group however each athlete stuck gamely to the task in hand and completed the race. On a different day, a team medal would have been just reward for their efforts however they were just pipped, finishing 4th overall.
Elizabeth Uhunamunre, Emmy Jeytoo, Erin Finegan and Sarah Braniff were the athletes who made up the girls U13 team. It was always going to be tough going for most of the girls who were running out of age however all of them produced solid performances that will stand to them going forward.
Sean Reilly, fresh from an excellent fourth place finish in last week’s U14 race in Darver was the club’s sole representative in the Boys U13 2500m race. Right from the start it was apparent that the race would be a competition between Sean and the excellent Shay O’Donnell from Boyne AC for championship honours. After being neck and neck for most of the race it was the Drogheda athlete who had the legs on the day opening up a gap in the last 500m to win by a few seconds. Nonetheless it was a good effort from Sean as he continues to build for the season ahead.
Closing thing out for the club were U17 athletes Donnacha Hughes, Peter McGuiness and Eoghan Smyth and U19 athlete Oisín Hughes who were all competing over 6000m.
Medal honours went to the ever dependable Donnacha who came home in a commendable third place with brother Oisín unlucky to finish just outside the medals. Next up for the club is the juvenile cross country meeting hosted by Glenmore AC as part of their Kearney & McBride cup event which will be held in Bush next Sunday 21st October.