Annual awards night
A special night was held in Ballynoe hall last Thursday when our club hosted their annual awards night. This occasion honours all the club members who compete throughout the year on the track, and the roads, not forgetting the cross-country competitions, where this club is very strong. The awards were presented to both juveniles and adults by John Beecher, our newly appointed chairperson.
We like to honour not only those athletes who are consistent performers and frequently up on the podium, collecting medals but also those juveniles who are improving throughout the year.
Our U10 age category winners are Sophie O’Connor and Ronan Geaney. Both had fantastic seasons, picking up medals at County, Munsters and All-Irelands.
Our U12 age winners were Grace O’Connor and Noah Keane. Again, these two performed really strongly and were in the medals all the way through the seasons and also scored very highly in Counties, Munsters and All Irelands.
Our older juvenile category winners are Ciara Hayes and Akeem Tighe. Ciara also was part of a very strong Loreto schools cross country team, along with Aimee Kearney, Ella Higgins and Teegan Murphy, which won the Munster schools and were 4th overall in the All-Irelands schools.
Our adult winners are Breda Lynch and Pat Costigan. Congratulations to them for all their great performances on the road, and for their fantastic support to all their teammates.
A special award was presented to our U11 girls cross-country team, which won the club gold team medals in the All-Ireland cross country championships, held in Garryanne, Conna last December. This was and is an amazing achievement. This great bunch of girls excelled themselves in being our first team to win gold medals in a national cross country championships, so hearty congratulations to MaryJane Casey, Sophie O’Connor, Grace O’Connor, Aoife O’Connor, Ciara O’Connell and Aideen O’Connor for making history for the club.
And so to the last award of the night. Our overall winner is Senan O’Reilly, who had a superb season, mostly for what he managed to do on the track. After helping his school, St Colmans, Fermoy to third place in the Intermediate category in the cross-country All-Irelands, he decided to concentrate on the track. He trained hard and it paid off handsomely, as he won the boys Intermediate All-Ireland 800 metres in a time of 1.57.83. He also finished 3rd in the All-Ireland clubs 800 metre race. Amazing stuff.
His times in the 800 metres qualified him to represent Ireland in the European Youth Olympics finals which were held in Slovakia last summer. He qualified out of his heat for the final in a time of 1.58.13 but unfortunately was unable to compete in the final due to illness. Great achievement in representing
Ireland. Well done to Senan.
Thanks to the club for hosting such a special night, to all the families for their support and to the Ballynoe community hall for the use of their facilities.
Further coverage of award presentation photos in next week’s edition.