Individual Medals for Noah and Naoise AT Munster Cross Country Championships
A wild and windswept Conna played host to last Sundays even age Munster Cross Country Championships. Despite stormy conditions on Saturday night the course was in excellent condition as it tested all the athletes with both steep and gradual uphill sections. Conditions underfoot were good but a bracing wind blew in the face of the athlete over much of the course. Traditional cross country running at its best!!!.
West Waterford was well represented at the championships with over 30 athletes competing. There were big fields in all the races with 165 finishers in the under 12 girls. West Waterford had two individual medal winners on the day. Noah Commins ran his best race ever to finish 2nd in the boys under 16 race. Naoh stayed in the second group for much of the race and as they went out on the last 1500m loop Noah was in 7th place. In the final long windy hill he made a run for home passing several athletes on the steepest section to cross the line in 2nd place (four places better than last year). Noah also led the county to second place in the inter county contest. Naoise Mac Mhurchadha was our second individual medal winner in the boys under 18 and he tucked nicely into the leading group. In the final lap he moved up steadily and as they turned the last bend sprinted for home to finish in 4th place well up on his 13th place last year.
Good Running by Under 10 Girls and Boys
It was a tough test for our young under 10 athletes but they rose to the challenge. First home was Ethain ní Mhurchadha in 22nd place. This was a huge improvement from her 72nd place last year. Sadie ní Dheigh was competing in her first Munster Championships and was well up the field in 46th place. Two of our under 9’s moved up and age to complete the team and Ayla Hogan finished 53rd and Rachel Curran 65th. The team finished 6th of the seventeen teams competing. The under 10 boys team were led home by Andy Zakis in 56th place and for all the rest of the team this was their first time competing at a Munster championships. Ché O’hArtaigh was next home in 64th place, Conall O’Ruairc 73rd Billy O’Riordan 96th Conor Queally 102nd, Jude Lavan 107th and Caleb Roche 113th. Ché, Conor, Jude and Caleb are all competing in the under 9 championships in two weeks time so Sunday’s race was a good test for them.
Big Improvements for EllIe Mai, Tiernan and Colm in under 12 races
Next up were the under 12 boys and girls running over 2000m. First home for West Waterford was Ellie Mae Doherty who finished in 29th place up 11 places on last year’s performance. She was followed home by Leah Kiely in 76th, Rachel Keogh 83rd Isobel Daly 102nd , Eile de Paor 107th and Darcy Lavan 121st. The team finished in 11th place.
In the boys race Tiernan Hogan was well up in the top quarter of the race and came home in 24th place, a huge jump from his 63rd finish last year. Colm O’Muiri jumped 33 places from last year to finish 50th. Liam Wilmott 62nd, Paidi O’Deigh and Partick Curran 93rd were all competing in their first Munster Championship.
County Medals for Natalie Barry and Saoirse Kinsella
At last year’s championships Natalie and Saoirse missed out on the medals as they did not make it in to the scoring six on the county team. This year they made up for it with both girls scoring on the county team that finished 3rd . Natalie made the biggest improvement of all our athletes finishing in 36th place ( sixty eight places better than last year) and Saoirse was also better than last year when she finished 52nd. Both girls have now qualified to represent Waterford at the All Ireland Championships in Enniskillen later in Nov.
Suin Cunningham was our only representative in the under 16 girls race where she finished 44th over the 4000m course. Despite the toughness of the conditions Suin was twenty five places up on her race last year.
Under 18 girls help West Waterford to Club and County medals in the Junior Womens Race.
Our under 18 girls Fia de Paor, Sarah O’Riordan and Jessics Griger competed in the under 18 and junior races which were run together. As they only had three runners under 18 they missed out on club and county medals in that category but the combined with Grainne Moore for the junior race and finished third in the club race behind West Muskerry and Ennis Track and also finished 3rd in the inter county race.
Well done to all our athletes and parents who travelled to Conna on Sunday last and a special well done to dads Alan and Niall who were part of the West Waterford team that won the Novice Men’s team race. Our next event will be the uneven age group Munster Championship in Tramore on Sunday 3rd Nov.
Tony’s League Sponsored by Inter Sport Elvery’s gets underway
On Wednesday last almost sixty athletes turned up to run in our annual winter league known as Tony’s League. This year the league will again be sponsored by Inter Sport Elvery’s. Conditions were nice and firm underneath and there was some very good running from our young athlete. David Kiely was the fastest boy over the 1000m course with a time of 3m59 and the best of the girls was Sibeal Curran in 4m09. Kealan Holland was very close to the 4min mark coming home in 4.01. Over the longer 2000m lap Jarlath Hurney was first home in 7.43 closely followed by Tiernan Hogan in 7.51 and Alisha Radley was best of the girls in 8.42 with Joey Ryan, Nathan Butler, Kevin Russell, Ava Kiely, Harry Drea, Cathal Murphy, Natalie Barry and Madaline Connors all under 9 mins. If you missed the first week and want to make it on to a team you must run this Wednesday.
