Juvenile News 07 November 2021

Another Successful Day at the Munster Cross Country Championships

The third and final day of the Munster Championships were held at Castlelyons Co Cork. Twenty seven athletes from West Waterford travelled to compete at the event with many of them taking part in their first Munster Championships. It was a great day for cross country running with bright sunshine all day and good underfoot conditions.

Two West Waterford athletes finished in the top 12 and won individual medals Anna Rochford under 11 and Eoin Morrissey under 13.

Great Running from the under 9’s

There were very big fields in both the girls and boys under 9 races. Alannah Pope and Olivia Kenny were competing in their first Munster Championship and both finished in the top 50 with Alannah coming through strongly in the latter half of the race to finish 36^th and Olivia not far behind in 47^th.

In the boys race those who competed last week all benefitted from the experience. Oran Murray led the team home in 41^st place just two places ahead of Shane Power who had a much better run this week. Seb Byrne was next home in 56^th place followed by Rex Radley 69^th and newcomer Ronan O’Donnell finished 70^th in his first race.

Medals for Anna Rochford and Natalie Barry

The first medals of the day came in the under 11 race. Anna Rochford had a super run. For much of the race she was just off the top twelve and with 300m to go she was in sixteenth place but she came with a great run down the final run in to move up to twelfth place and win her first individual  Munster medal.  Natalie Barry ran a solid race throughout and finished 58^th. Both Ruth Walsh and Alicia Radley, who moved up from the under 10’s finished 74^th and 93^rd. The Waterford team finished third in the inter county race and Anna and Natalie were scoring members of the team.

The biggest field of the day were in the under 11 races with almost one hundred and fifty athletes competed in both the boys and girls races. Fergus Donnelly was the best of the boys as he continues to improve with every race and came home 20^th, not far behind was Charlie Curran in 25^th place.  Dylan Murray showed a big improvement from last week and finished 48^th just three places ahead of Conor McCarthy 51^st. Mario Zakis moved up from the under 10’s and finished 58^th with Patrick Mullaney next in 75^th place. We had three new athletes running their first race and Jacob Foley finished 75^th followed by Nathan Foley 107^th and Eoghan Kenny 121^st.

Individual and County medals for the Boys under 13 

We had just two athletes competing in the girls under 13 race where Luisne de Paor finished 75^th and Amy O’Riordan 89^th.

Owen Morrissey had his best run of the season to finish 7^th in the boys under 13 race and win the second individual medal of the day. A much improved Rory  Donnelly finished 21^st and Cathal McKenna finished 63^rd. Owen, Rory and Cathal all scored on the county team that finished 3^rd in the inter county race.

In the final race of the day Angelina Chizhikova put in a strong run to finish 16^th and Fiona O’Riordan also made it to the top twenty finishing 19^th.

 Athletes from West Waterford who have qualified for the All Ireland Championships Santry

Sunday Nov 21^st

West Waterford Ac is delighted to have such a large group of athletes qualified for the All Ireland Championships. Seven athletes will be competing at this level for the first time  Rosie Berryman, Lauren Cliffe, Nicole Cullinane, Luisne de Paor,Ciara Flavin, Ava Kiely and Naoise MacMurchadha and it is a huge achievement to qualify for an All Ireland in your first season of cross country running. Well done to all the athletes who have qualified and to their coaches who have supported them on their journey. 

Munster Teams

The following have qualified to compete on the Munster Teams

Under 12 Isabelle Gaffney,

Under 14 Sarah Gaffney, Fia de Paor, Aoife O’Donovan

Under 16 David Gaffney, Cal Tutty

 Waterford County Teams

The following have qualified to compete with the county teams

Under 14 Sarah Gaffney, Fia de Paor, Aoife O’Donovan, Kyla Flavin,            Lauren Cliffe, Ami Flavin

Under 16 Grainne Moore, Claudia O’Halloran, Ciara Quinn, Fiona O’Halloran

West Waterford Club Teams

The following have qualified to compete with the club teams

Under 12 Isabelle Gaffney, Ava Kiely, Rosie Berryman, Nicole Cullinane, Luisne de Paor, Ciara Flavin

Under 14 Sarah Gaffney, Fia de Paor, Aoife O’Donovan, Kyla Flavin,            Lauren Cliffe, Ami Flavin

Under 16 David Gaffney, Cal Tutty, Naoise MacMurchadha, Ben Qualter

Tony’s League Sponsored by Intersport Elverys

Week three of our winter league which was the first week of the team competition went ahead on Wednesday last.  Once again we had over eighty young athletes competing and there were some very good times on the day. Fastest of all was Cal Tutty who completed the 2000m course in 6m30.

Shannon Radley made the biggest improvement on the day knocking a full minute off her time. Natalie Barry, Doireann Hickey, Eabha Hickey, Ciara Quinn,Fiona o’Riordan, Rory Donnolly and Ami Flavin have all bettered their times in each of the three weeks so far. In the short lap Jarleth Hurney still leads the way and Sulán Ní Shullibháin and Sinead Houlihan are two young athletes that are bringing down their times every week. Full list of times below. You can check out your team scores at training on Wed.