Juvenile News 25 October 2021

West Waterford athletes shine at Munster Championships

A very exciting and hotly contested Munster Championship event was held in Two Mile Borris Co Tipperary. Despite the heavy rain on Saturday the course was in tip top condition with dry underfoot condition. It was a bright sunny day ideal for cross country running. Numbers participating in athletics have grown during the pandemic and this was evident on Sunday will large fields in all the races.  West Waterford AC athletes showed they could mix it with the best winning seven individual medals, were second in two club championships and provided scoring members for two county teams that finished third. The first individual medal came in the boys under 10 race when Jarleth Hurney successfully navigated the large field to finish in 12^th position.

Next up in the girls under 12 was Isabelle Gaffney who put in a solid run to finish 4^th. The best placing of the day was Sarah Gaffney who ran in the leading group for all of the under 14 race and brought home the silver medal. Fia de Paor 7^th and Aoife O’Donovan 9^th also won individual medals. In the boys under 16 race David Gaffney was in medal contention throughout the race and finished 9^th. After a long layoff with a foot injury Cal Tutty was back in action and came with a very strong finish to take 11^th place and claim his individual medal.

Big Fields in Under 10 Races

With up to 130 athletes competing in under 10 it was a big step up for our young athletes who have only run in the smaller field at the Waterford championships. Anna Rochford who has only been training with us for a few weeks had a super run to finish 21^st and was the second Waterford athlete home. All the girls finished in the top 100 with Alicia Radley 60^th, Ruth Walsh 69^th,Éile de Paor 87^th, Leah Kiely 88^th,Katie Mai Daly 91^st. In the boys race Jarleth Hurney started off in the middle of the field but as the race progressed he made his way steadily through the field to finish 12^th. The rest of the team found the large field difficult to navigate and Dan Moynihan 43^rd,Mario Zakis 47^th, and Tiernan Hogan 52^nd all finishing in the top half of the race. Jack Barry was next home in 93^rd and David Dempsey made it in to the top 100 and Cillian Pope in 118^th. Well done to all the young athletes who took part in their first Munster Championships the experience will stand them in good stead in the future. The first one is always the hardest one.

Under 12 Girls Team Finish 4^th and Qualify for All Ireland

The under 12 girls team put in a strong team performance to finish 4^th and qualify for the All Ireland Championships in Santry on Sunday Nov 21^st. Isabelle Gaffney was the only member of the team that had experience running at this level and she put in a solid performance to finish 4^th. Rosie Berryman running in her first Munster scored on the team in 40^th position. Two of the under 11 who moved up for the experience of running a Munster Championships put in great performance with Ava Kiely second in for the team in 38^th  place and Nicole Cullinane completing the scoring four in 64^th place. Six athletes are allowed compete in the All Ireland so those four plus Luisne de Paor 74^th plus Ciara Flavin 84^th qualify for the All Ireland. Other finisher on the team were Siún Cunningham 92^nd,Aoife Doyle 102^nd,Natalie Barry 104^th,Aimee Barry 109^th,Ciara O’Donovan 111^th, Shannon Radley 112^th and Amy O’Riordan 120^th.

Rian Curran was the best of the under 12 boys finishing strongly in 24^th place. Most of the rest of the team were running out of their age. Fergus Donnolly was next home in 55^th, just ahead of Charlie Curran 58^th. Patrick Mullaney finished 70^th, Conor McCarthy 80^th, Cathal McKenna 90^th Lochlan Hurney 104^th, Peter Ahearn 105^th Cian Qualter 107.

Most of these athletes will move down an age group next week to compete in the boys and girls under 11 and we look forward to seeing them in action again.

Silver and Bronze for Girls under 14

Our strongest team of the day was the girls under 14 who put in a huge performance to have three athletes in the top 10. Sara Gaffney had a great individual run to finish 2^nd and she was backed up by Fian de Paor 7^th and Aoife O’Donovan 9^th.  The fourth scorer on the team was Kyla Flavin who had moved up an age to compete under 14. She ran strongly for most of the race but started to fade over the closing 300m, however when Lauren Cliffe appeared on her shoulder she found her second wind and sprinted for the line to finish 26^th and hold on to the fourth scoring spot. Lauren was just one place behind in 27^th and these five girls all scored on the county team that finished 3^rd. The sixth team member heading to the All Ireland is Ami Flavin who finished 47^th. Usually in a Munster Championships those finishing places would be enough to win the title but they came up against a very strong Ennis Track team who won with four in the top 13.

We had just three boys competing under 14. Eoin Prendergast was a year out of age and had a good run to finish 15^th. Not far behind was Liam Broderick 21^st with Conor Keane in 59^th. Next weekend Eoin will lead our under 13 team and Liam and Conor will form part of a strong under 15 team.

County Bronze for Grainne Moore

Next in action were the girls under 16 and our first athlete home was Grainne Moore. Grainne improved on her 7^th place finish in the counties and was the 5^th Waterford girl home in 33^rd place. The county team finished in 3^rd place. Next home was Claudia O’Halloran in 49^th with Ciara Quinn 53^rd, Fiona O’Riordan 54^th and Doireann Hickey 55^th.

Silver Team Medals for Boys under 16   

There was some very solid running from our boys under 16 team. David Gaffney led the team home in 9^th place with a very strong finishing Cal Tutty 11^th. Naoise Mac Murchada was next home in 28^th and Ben Qualter was the fourth scoring member of the team in 45^th. This was enough for the team to finish second and bring home the silver medals. David, Naoise and Cian  will all be running under 15 next weekend.

The final race of the day was the girls under 18 Cathy Shanley led the team home in 30^th place just one ahead of Lia Cunningham in 31^st. Serafina Hollrigi  who is an exchange student in Dungarvan this year and has taken up cross country running was next home in 35^th just ahead of Crea Frisby 36^th and Angelina Chizhikova 37^th.

Welldone to all our athletes who represented their club with pride and thankyou to all the coaches and parents who supported them on the day. A special congratulation to juvenile club coach Kelly Fitzgerald who finished 6^th in the Novice race.

Intersport Elverys to Sponser Tony’s League 

We are delighted to partner with Inter Sport Elverys who have again come on board this year to sponsor our juvenile winter league. We had another big turn out on Wednesday with over eighty athletes competing in the league this week. Almost half of those taking part improved on their time of the previous week. Fia de Paor was the best of the girls this week in 7.03. Fia, Sarah and Aoife have all run close to the seven minutes so we wait to see who will be the first to break seven minutes. Naoise Mac Murchadha was the fastest of the boys in 6.43 just ahead of Cal Tutty. Claudia O’Halloran made the biggest improvement knocking 48 secs off her time. Patrick Mullaney also improved by 40 secs. Big improvements were also made by Conor Keane, Rory Donnolly, Serafina Hollrigl and Lia Cunningham.  

In the short lap  Sulan Ni Shuilleabhain made the biggest improvement knocking 20 secs off her time. There was also big improvements from Jarleth Hurney(18secs), David Dempsey (16secs) and Ruth Walsh (10secs).

Full Results

Training will continue as normal on Wed and Friday over the mid term and will be geared to the upcoming Munster Championships.  Everyone should have got the email with the entries for the Munster under 9-11. If anyone is missing from the list they need to contact me asap as the entries close on Wed evening.
The teams for Tony’s league are on the board at training and the team contest will get underway on Wed Nov 10^th.

Upcoming Events

Sunday 31^st October Munster under 9-19 Cross Country Two mile Borris Co Tipperary

Sunday 7^th November Munster B Championships under 9-19 anyone who didn’t win a medal on Oct 24^th or 31^st can compete.

Sunday 21^st November All Ireland under 12,14,16,18. West Waterford have a girls under 12 and 14 team and a boys under16 qualified  and Waterford county have qualified in the girls under 14 and 16.