Juvenile New November 18 2024

All Ireland Medal for Naoise MacMhurchadha

Eight juvenile athletes made the long trek to Fermanagh to compete in the 123.ie All Ireland Cross Country championships on Sunday last. The event was held in the grounds of Necarne Castle just outside Enniskillen. The course was a real test of cross country running with plenty of hills to negotiate. Overnight rain made conditions underfoot soft which added to the difficulty. There were big field in all the age groups averaging about 170 athletes per race. All of the athletes competing had to qualify through their provincial championships so you had the cream of the crop from all over Ireland competing. In the girls under 14 race Natalie Barry was first home for West Waterford in 111^th place and Natalie scored on the Waterford team that finished in 11^th place. Next home was Saoirse Kinsella in 140^th and Ava Kiely in 147^th.

 West Waterford had just one qualifier in the under 16 girls race and Siun Quinn crossed the line in 117^th place. In the boys under 16 Noah Commins started well and was in the top twenty but a short while later you could see that all was not well and though feeling under the weather for most of the race he battled hard and finished in 56^th place.

The girls under 18 and 20 were held together over the 4000m course and Sarah O’Riordan finished 105^th in the under 18 race and 118^th in the junior race. Grainne Moore competing in the junior race finished 116^th.

The club had to wait for the last race of the day for its only medal of the championships. Naoise Mac Mhurchadha was competing in the combined under 18 and junior men’s race. Naoise  put in a strong run over the difficult terrain and finished 27^th in the under 18 race and was a scoring member of the Munster team that took the gold medals in the inter provincial race.

Well done to all our athletes who made the long journey to compete for their club and county and their parents who were there to support them.

We will have a shorter journey to the next All Ireland as it is being held in Tramore race course. There will be a training day on Saturday next in Tramore for all those qualified for the All Ireland uneven ages. More details to follow.

Times Continue to Tumble at Tony’s Winter League Sponsored by InterSport Elvery’s

It was another good day at our winter league on Wednesday as seventy athletes competed and thirty four recorded their fastest time to date. Cathal Murphy was again the fastest of the boys recording a time of 7.13. Mario Zakis and Tiernan Hogan went under 7mis 30 for the first time. Eabha Broderick was once again the fastest girl with a time of 7.42. David Dempsey went under 8 mins for the first time and there were also big improvements from Kevin Russell and Harry Drea.

Eoghan Kenny, Jamie Kiely and Alex Dempsey all improved to dip under the 9min mark. In the short lap Andy Zakis was fastest in 4.42 and Ethain Ni Mhurchu was the fastest girl in 3.57.

Seven athletes have improved their times every week over the last four weeks Cathal Murphy, Colm O’Muiri, Joey Ryan, Isobel Daly, Katie Mai Daly and Darcy Lavin in the big lap, while Sadie Burke is the only athlete in the short lap to improve every week.

We have now completed two weeks of the team competition and Eabha Broderick’s team have extended their lead with 414pts. Tiernan Hogan’s team are second with 437 and Suin Cunningham in 3^rd place with 467pts. Ava Kiely’s team are 4^th with 471pts and only one point separates the next three teams. It’s all to run for over the next two weeks.