Successful Start to County Championships for WWAC
It was great to back competing at county cross country championships after a long break. Day 1 of the county championships was held on Sunday over a well laid out course in Carriganore. The 1000m lap was challenging for our younger athletes as a stiff breeze was blowing against them. Luckily the rain held off until the finish of the last race. West Waterford AC had 44 juveniles competing from under 10 to 18 and there were some great individual and team performances winning 2 individual county titles, 3 team titles and finish 3rd team in three races. Well done to all who competed today especially those running in their first cross country race and also those running out of their age group.
Team Gold for Boys under 10
First in action were the under 10’s who were running 1000m. Alicia Radley running her first cross country race was the first West Waterford athlete home in 4th place with Ruth Walsh 10th and Grace Hodge 13th. It was a pity they didn’t have a fourth runner as they would have been well in the hunt for team silver medals.
Mario Zakis had a great individual run to finish second in the boy’s race and collect his first county medal. Not far behind was David Dempsey in 5th place. Cillian Pope 13th and Shane Power 14th were the other scoring members of the team and their points tally of 34 was good enough to take the gold medals. We also had Rex Radley finishing in 15th place. Rex and Shane will be in their own age group under 9 next Sunday.
Bronze for Boys and Girls under 12
Next up were the under 12’s who were running two laps of the 1000m course. The start of the girls race was very fast but it settled down to a reasonable pace after about 200m. Rosie Berryman was the first WWAC athlete home in 10th place followed by Luisne de Paor who came through the field strongly to finish 12th. The rest of our team was made up of under 11 girls who moved up an age to compete and they were led home by Nicole Cullinane in 15th followed by Natalie Barry 19th, Ciara Flavin 20th, Ciara O’Donovan 22nd and Amy O’Riordan 23rd. Rosie, Luisne,Nicole and Natalie were the scoring four on the team.
The boys under 12 team was also made up mostly of our under 11 runners who were getting some race experience ahead of their own championships next Sunday. Charlie Curran surged ahead of Fergus Donnelly in the run in to the finish as they crossed the line in 6th and 7th place. Conor McCarthy was next home in 11th and Cian Qualter 15th just edged out Cathal McKenna 16th for the fourth scoring place on the team. Nathan Butler ran his first cross country and finished 26th. The team finished in third place.
Gold for Fia de Paor and Eoin Prendergast under 14
It was gold all the way under 14 for West Waterford athletes as they took individual and team gold in both the boys and girls races under 14. Fia de Paor led all the way in the girls under 14 race to come home a convincing winner. Aoife O’Donovan ran strongly to take the bronze medal and with Ami Flavin 7th and newcomer Lauren Cliffe 9th they easily took the team title. We have great strength in depth in this age group and the team of Sarah O’Riordan 11th, Kyla Flavin 12th ,Sarah Hallissey 13th and Isabelle Matuzzi 15th took the bronze medals. Clodagh Cunningham ran in her first cross country race and finished 16th.
There was a great tussle in the boys under 14 between West Waterford’s Liam Broderick and Eoin Prendergast. For much of the race they ran close together exchanging the lead with each other but in the final run in to the finish Eoin Prendergast pulled away to take the win. Liam finished 2nd and shortly afterwards Eoin Morrissey crossed the line in 5th place and Conor Keane (6th) came through strongly in the last 500m to overhaul Rory Donnelly (7th) for the 4th scoring place on the team.
Under 16 and 18 Girls Miss out on team medals
The lack of a fourth runner saw the girls under 16 and 18 miss out on team medals. We had three girls in the under 16 race and first home was Grainne Moore in 7th place. Fiona O’Riordan finished 10th just ahead of Ciara Quinn in 11th place. In the under 18 girls our trio ran together for the first 2000m but then Cathy Ní Sheanlaoich pulled away to take the silver medal and Lia Cunningham got the better of Crea Frisby to take the bronze medal.
Mark Blackwell moved up to compete with the senior club and won the Junior men’s race.
Congratulations to Callum Curran who won the hurdles at the All Ireland Community Games in Carlow last Sunday.
Well done to all who made the journey to Waterford to compete today. All that hard work at training is paying off.
County Championships Day 2 next Sunday in the Friary @ 11am.
Next Sunday the second day of the county championships will be held in the Friary with the first race off at 11am. We will meet at 10.am to collect numbers and warm up for the races. The first race will be for see our newest athletes in action. The events are as follows
under 9 (born 2013)
under 11 (born 2012 and 2011)
under 13 (born 2010 and 2009)
under 15 (born 2008 and 2007)
under 17 (born 2006 and 2005)
We have more athletes in the correct age in the uneven events so we hope to see an even bigger turnout next Sunday.
Tony’s Juvenile Winter League
The highlight of winter training for most of our athletes is taking part in Tony’s winter league. We had to miss out on it last year but we are sorting out the logistics of having it up and running by mid October. It’s a timed run over one big lap for the under 11’s up and a half lap for the younger athletes with everyone trying to better their own time and score points for their team. This is a fun event with everyone eagerly waiting for the times to go up so they can check their progress. It is run on Wednesday evenings at training time. More info next week.
Waiting Lists
With the easing of restrictions we have increased our pod sizes slightly and have been able to accommodate all those on our waiting list. We thank you for your patience as we worked within the HSE guidelines. We will be accepting a small number of new members in the next two weeks and will then start a new waiting list.
