Juvenile Notes, 14th November 2011

Success for West Waterford Juveniles at Home and Abroad

It was yet another successful weekend with the club winning three club titles at the Munster Cross-country championships and West Waterford retained the overall trophy for the best cross country club in Munster.  At the National Athletics Awards on Saturday night Kate Veale was the winner of two awards and she also had a good race in Bristol on Sunday.

Under 11 boys retain Munster Cross Country Title

The under 11 boys started the winning streak for the club by taking the team title. There was a huge field in this event and the narrow start did not give an equal chance to all athletes. Cian O’ Riordan got a very bad start and looked to be out of contention for an individual medal but he worked his way through the field to finish in 4th place. Sean Ronayne had his best race ever to finish in 9th place and win his first individual Munster medal. The under 10 duo of Cormac Mahony and Sean Hickey were not put off by running in an older age group and finished 14th and 21st to give the team a total of 48pts well clear of Thurles Crokes and Leevale.  The other team members who all finished in the top half the field were Liam Hamilton 49th, Matthew Walsh 53rd, Carthach Daly 58th, Thomas Hoarty 61st and Darragh Pender 66th. The top six qualify to represent West Waterford at the All Ireland Championships in early December. In the inter county event Waterford finished third with Cian, Sean, Cormac and Sean Hickey all scoring on the Waterford team.

Club and County Title for under 13 girls

There was a long delay at the start of the under 13 race as the organizers bowed to pressure and widened the start to accommodate the large field of athletes. Emma Hallahan was well up from the start on a very testing course and led the team home in 6th place.  There was superb team back up from Caoimhe Dwyer in 8th place and Dairina Ni Sheanlaoich 9th. This was the first time that Caoimhe and  Dairina made it into the top ten at a Munster cross country championship. Chloe Fennell showed she is back to her best form when she finished 13th and secured the 4th scoring position on the team.  Although up in the leading bunch in the first half the race Bronagh Condon faded to 15th in the latter stages of the race but still scored the all important points that secured Waterford the gold in the inter county race. All five girls along with Ferrybanks Krista Meade made up the Waterford team. Rachel Wyley, who finished 44th,  claimed the last spot on the team for the All Ireland.  Next home was Rachel mc Guickian 49th followed by Aisling Mullaney 75th, Kristian Murphy 85th and Aoibhinn Connaughton 98th.

Under 15 Girls win third Club Title for West Waterford

Waterford athletes dominated the girls under 15 race winning the individual club and county titles. Aisling Quinn of Ferrybank and Aoife Hamilton of West Waterford finished first and second in the race and with four other Waterford athletes in the top 12 Waterford had almost 50pts to spare over Cork in the inter county competition. As well as Aoife, Sinead Flynn 10th and Cliona Ryan 12th won individual medals and scored on the county team. Meg Ryan has been out of action for the last two weeks with an injury but she made it to the start line yesterday and finished 17th to score the 4th spot on the club tam and ensure the gold medals. Sarah Wyley finished 28th and Catherine Henley 37th on what was a tough and hilly course. 

Waterford take Silver in the under 13 boys

Micheal Power was the leading Waterford athlete in the under 13 boys event. Finishing 7th he claimed an individual medal and led Waterford to second place in the inter county event. The next athlete home was Patrick Walsh in 38th place. Eoin Ryan was next in 43rd with Shaun O’ Mahony in 58th. Niall Blackwell finished 63rd with Keelan Dee Carter 78th and Conor Coleman 80th.

Under 15 Boys finish 2nd County and 3rd Club

Two West Waterford athletes finished in the top 12 in the under 15 boys and with Shane O’Riordan 19th and Liam Reilly 34th the team scored 69 pts to finish third in the inter club competition behind Togher and Nenagh Olympic. The same four boys all scored on the Waterford team that finished second in the inter county competition. In the same race Eoin O’Brien finished 36th with Seamie Fennell 47th and Chris O’Mahony in 55th.

Bronze for under 19 girls

The under 19 girls won the clubs final team prize of the day when they finished third in the inter club competition. Kaylee Norris 15th, Una McGrath 18th and Emer Duff 19th were the scoring three. Kaylee was also a scoring member of the Waterford team that finished third in the inter county competition.

Individual medals for Lucy O’Brien and Robbie Mulligan

In the under 17 girls we had just two athletes competing Lucy O’Brien finished 8th to add another individual medal to the one she won in the under 18 race and Robbie Mulligan did the same when he finished 10th in the under 17 boys. Katie Hamilton is improving with every race and finished 23rd in the under 17 girls. Damian Murphy just missed an individual when finishing 13th in the under 19 boys race.

First Munster medal for Oisin O’Riordan

Oisin O’Riordan had a antastic run in the under 9 boys event to finish 6th and win his first Munster medal. The team were unlucky to miss out on the team medals as they were just two points behind Thurles Crokes who won the bronze medals. The other members of the team were Alan Curran 24th, Mark Blackwell 43rd, Mikey Mullaney 47th and Niall Browne 53rd. In the girls race Kate Killegrew ran strongly throughout and finished in 14th place.

Under 11 girls must run again next week

Emily O’Mahony has come close to a Munster medal on several occasions during the summer and it looked like she had finally got her individual when she ran a fine race to finish 8th in the girls under 11 race. No medals were awarded at the end of the race and it subsequently came to light that the race started as the starter was on his way to the start of the race. We are no too sure what happened but it seem that as the athletes were lined up waiting for the start of the race one of the spectators shouted go and they all took off. The race was declared null and void and will now take place on Sunday next in conjunction with the b championships. Lucy Holmes finshed 18th in the same race while Ciara Mc Kenna was 49th and Claudia Quarry was 82nd.

West Waterford set to retain All Round Cup

Although the results of the allround cup will not be announced until after the under 11 race next Sunday with three first team prizes and two bronze team prizes West Waterford now have 2pts and cannot be caught in the race for the overall trophy for the best cross country club in Munster. In the twelve races run yesterday West Waterford had a t least one athlete in the top ten in ten of the races and in the other two had a 13th and 14th place. Well done to all who competed.

National Athletics Awards   

A dinner was held in Dublin last Saturday to celebrate the achievements of Irish athletes at home and abroad. Kate Veale was nominated in three categories Emerging Athlete of the Year, Aviva Tailteann Schools Award and Athlete of the Year. Kate duly won both the emerging athlete where she was described as an athlete who combines rare natural talent with an unflappable temperament. For her record breaking performance at the Aviva Irish Schools Championships Kate also took the schools award while the Athlete of the year went to Deirdre Ryan who finished 6th in the World Championships.  Kate was unable to attend the event as she was in Bristol for the cross-country challenge race series. Her father James was on hand to accept the awards on her behalf. Also present at the function were her Mum Brid, Antoinette O’Brien Chairperson and Mary Ashe Secretary of West Waterford Juvenile Committee, Bro P. Lennon St. Augustine’s College and John McGrath Chair of the National Juvenile Committee. Well done to Kate and to Joe Gough who won Master Athlete of the Year and David Mc Carthy who was a member of the under 23 team that won gold at the European Cross Country Championships and were named Team of the Year.
On Sunday Kate finished 3rd in the under 20 race at the Cross Country Challenge race in Bristol. Annabel Gummow the European Junior bronze medallist over 5000m was a clear winner of the race finishing in 17m 43sec. But second and third were much closer with Hannah Tarver finishing just five secs ahead of Kate.

Munster B Championships in Limerick next Sunday.  

The Munster B championships will be held in Limerick Racecourse on Sunday next. Anyone who won a medal at the A championships in Clare or Clonmel cannot take part in the B Championships. Check at training next Wed to see if you are entered. All the under 11 girls who ran last weekend will run as will those who were to run in the B Championships.

Arrangements for Sligo

A bus will travel to Sligo for the All Ireland Championships leaving the Park Hotel at 9am on Saturday 26th. We will be collecting money for Sligo at training on Wed and Fri of this week.