Juvenile News 07 November 2022

 

Tough Conditions for Day 2 of the Munster Cross Country Championships

 

Tough and testing don’t adequately describe the conditions faced by our young athletes as they took to the start line for Day 2 of the Munster Championships under 9,11,13,15 and 17. The rain of the past few days meant underfoot conditions were very soft and there was mud in abundance everywhere. As usual our athletes showed true grit with 33 finishing the tough course and many coming away with Munster medals and 12 qualified for the All Ireland Championships in Conna in early December. We were lucky with the weather in Limerick Racecourse as the day dawned bright and sunny and apart from two light showers it stayed fine for the races.

 

First Munster Medals for Conan, Rian and Gearoid

 

The first two races of the day were for Girls and Boys under 9 run over 750m. West Waterford was represented by Elin Qualter and Eadaoin Houlihan. Both completed the tough course with Elin 74th and Eadaoin 81st.

Next up in the boys under 9 Conan Hallahan put in a huge effort in his first outing with the club to finish 15th and Rian Flynn showing the benefits of having run in the under 10 two weeks ago not far behind in 19th place. Gearoid Butler was also having his first run in a Munster Championships and finished 33rd.  The fourth member of the team Jamie Kiely battled all the way to the finish making up several places over the last 300m to finish 58th. The team finished 4th overall but with a bit more training over the summer this group should be in the shake up for club honours next year. The Waterford County team finished 3rd and West Waterford had three scorers on the team Conan, Rian and Gearoid who all win their first Munster medals.

 

Tough 1500m run for under 11 Boys and Girls

 

Next up were the girls under 11 whose race was over the 1500m loop. Ellie Mae Doherty who was moving up an age after her great run under 10 two weeks ago was first home in 26th place. Ruth Walsh continues to improve with every run was next home in 51st place. Next across the line was another under 10 Isobel Daly in 62nd with Katie Mai Daly having a better run this week and finishing 83rd closely followed by Leah Kiely in 87th.

 

In the boys race Jarlath Hurney also moved up an age and finished 36th. Olan Devereaux looked much stronger in this race and came home in 54th followed by two more under 10’s Tiernan Hogan 60th and Colm O’ Muiri 84th.

 

Individual Medals for Isobel and County Medals for Isobel and Sophie

 

The next race for girls under 13 was a tough ask as they ran over 2500m. Isobel Gaffney is coming back into form and put in a great run to finish 4th . Sophie Beresford paced herself well over the distance and came home in 47th place. Ellen Power and Ciara Flavin were close together for much of the race with Ellen finishing 68th and Ciara 69th. The rest of the team were tightly bunched together with Siun Cunningham102nd, Ava Kiely 103rd, Luisne de Paor 106th, Nicole Cullinane 109th and Natalie Barry 112th.  The Waterford team finished 3rd in the inter county contest and both Isobel and Sophie scored on the team. Ellen and Ciara just missed out on a medal with the sixth scorer for Waterford just ahead of them in 65th place. Isobel, Sophie, Ellen, Ciara and Siun have all qualified to represent Waterford in the All Ireland championships in early Dec.

 

Round 1 for Sarah, Round 2 for Fia who will win Round 3

 

We have a very strong girls under 15 panel and they showed strength in depth to finish 4th in the inter club contest and qualify for the All Ireland Championships.

There was a great individual battle between Sarah Gaffney and Fia de Paor.  In the even age championships Fia was ahead for much of the race but Sarah came with a great sprint to edge ahead just before the finish line. This week Fia worked really hard to stay with the leading bunch so even though Sarah came with a strong sprint finish Fia stayed ahead to finish 4th with Sarah in 7th place.

Ami Flavin put in a mighty second lap to move from the 60’s to finish 35th and there wasn’t much between Lauren Cliffe  59th and Sarah O’Riordan in 62nd. They will be joined in the All Ireland by Aoife O’Donovan who was competing in a national gymnastics event at the weekend. Waterford finished 3rd in the inter county event with Fia, Sarah and Ami all scoring on the team. All six girls will also represent Waterford in the inter county contest at the All Irelands.

 

Individual Medals for Naoh Commins and Naoise MacMhurchadha

 

We had just one athlete in the under 15 and 17 boys races. Noah Commins is still learning with each race and he was running out of his age group and over the longer 2500m distance. He paced himself well and with 600m to go was in 16th place a very strong last 600m saw him move through the field and finish 7th.

In the under 17 boys race Naoise was always in the top ten in a very fast paced race and finished strongly to take 9th place which was a very good performance as he also was running out of his age group. Noah and Naoise will represent Munster at the All Ireland Championships in December.

 

Well done to all our athletes and the parents who travelled to Limerick. Have fun trying to get the mud off everything.

 

 

Inter Sport Elverys Tony’s League

 

Its back to the Friary on Wed and whatever the weather Tony’s League sponsored by Inter Sport Elverys will go ahead. The under 9s and 10s are running a 1000m loop with all the other ages running the full  2000m lap of the Friary.  Three athletes have gone under 7mis Noah Commins 6.36, Oisin Whelan 6.58 and Isobel Gaffney 6.59.

A lot of athletes were caught out by the conditions on the second day and many had slower times however there ia a group of six athletes who have improved their times over each of the three weeks Sarah O’Riordan, Amy Cosgrave, Isobel Daly, Luisne de Paor, Eoghan Kenny and Eile de Paor.  With the ground so soft at the moment it will be hard to record fast time this week but we will see who is up for the challenge. Rember you are running for your team as well as yourself on Wed.

 

All Ireland Championships in Donegal

 

West Waterford is delighted to have 13 athletes qualified for the All Ireland Championships in Donegal. The bus is booked and so is the accommodation in Derry and we look forward to heading off on Saturday Nov 19th for the long trek north.

The qualified athletes are Isobel and Sarah Gaffney, Naoise Mac Mhurchadha, Noah Commins, Fia and Luisne de Paor, Sophie Beresford, Ellen Power, Aoife O’Donovan, Ami and Ciara Flavin, Sarah O’Riordan and Lauren Cliffe.

 

Upcoming Events