Carraig save the best till last!
Last Sunday saw the conclusion of the 2021 club cross country championships with the national juvenile B, Masters and Intermediate cross country events.
For the first time in many years a national championships was held in Cork and was hosted by our neighbours St Nicholas AC, Castlelyons. The St Nicks club put on a great show despite the weather not playing it’s part with a lot of overnight rain making for heavy ground that was quite wet in some places. A nice flowing, relatively flat course in pristine grass farmland overlooked by Corrin Hill to the north and the ruins of Barrymore Castle to the east was a quite scenic venue. Having entered teams in all ages in the juvenile races we were hit by the dreaded Covid positive case protocols prior to race day just to remind us that the pandemic that has haunted our sports activities for two years is still having an effect, taking down a couple of our teams.
The B national championships are for athletes that have not medalled in any way in any of the previous two days of cross country national underage events. Our younger age teams of 11s and 13s were first into action and as always did themselves, their coaches and families proud with their attitude and courage taking on what can be an intimidating event like a national championship race. No medals amongst the four teams but lots of great performances and a wealth of experience gained for the years ahead. Medals started to come as the ages of our athletes
increased and our 15s and 17s teams had great success.
Our U15 boys had our only individual medal of the day when Cormac Fennessy ran to a magnificent silver national medal with a hard fought second place finish. Cormac also scored on the gold medalling Cork team and his fine run helped secure a brilliant club silver for him and his teammates. Our U15 girls team were not to be outdone and took a bronze team medal in their race.
Our U17 boys team of six were particularly hard hit by Covid protocols and went to the line with only three but both Timmy Colbert and Rian O’Luasa took gold team county medals with their best XC performances of the year. This adds to the medals that this boys age group have taken in the XC season to eight, after the team took bronze in the 17 A race in December and now two more medals from the B competition. Our U17 girls added the icing to the cake by capping another good season for our older teens with a bronze team medal in their race making it 7 of the U17 girls who have national medals throughout the XC season.
MASTERS RACE
Our masters men’s teams made club history by being the first teams to race in the national championships race when we fielded teams in the men’s 35 to 50 and over 50 events. All the lads are parents of juvenile members and are great role models and mentors to our young athletes. No medals for the lads in what was a very high standard affair but like always it is more about the journey and not the destination when you
have athletics as part of your lifestyle.
MUNSTER INDOORS
The Munster indoor juvenile track and field championships are in full swing and last Saturday we had three of our young race walkers in action on Nenagh Olympics indoor facilities. All three had a return that was impossible to beat taking three individual medals. Aoife Martin in the U15 1,000 metre walk took a magnificent win to add a gold indoor medal to her outdoor title from last season.
In the U14 race we had two girls in action also over 1000 metres and Robyn Maher took the win with Anna Mullins following in close order to take second place. A great start to the year from Martin’s race walkers and all three girls will now head to Athlone ITs indoor arena for the national finals in March.
PARK RUN
Siobhan Walsh had another impressive run at the Glen river park run last Saturday with a fourth place overall in what is one of the more challenging courses.
LOOK FORWARD
This Friday the Munster post primary schools cross country championships take place in the Cork County board venue in Riverstick. A strong contingent of club juveniles will be hoping to qualify for national finals in Belfast on 12th March. Our club AGM is to be held on Monday evening the 21st in the community hall in Carraig na bhFear at 20:00 hrs. All members over 18 and parents of our juveniles are eligible and encouraged to attend.