Juvenile News October 12 2025

Babs Connors Cup Returns to West Waterford

Day 2 of the county cross country championships were held in ideal conditions in St Augustine’s College on Sunday October 5^th. As on day one a large contingent of West Waterford athletes turned out to compete and with teams placed in seven of the ten races the Babs Connors Cup for the best cross country club returned to West Waterford.

Gold for under 9 Boys and Girls Teams

The boys and girls under 9 got things off to a winning start with team gold in both races. Íde Ní Lonáin put in a great last 150m to move up to take individual silver. She was followed home by her sister Mollaí in 6^th, Saoirse Keoghan had a much improved run to finish 10^th closely followed by Maddie Grant in 12^th. Next came Roxanna Nowakiewicz 14^th, Kate Barry 15^th, and Bella Doyle 17^th.

A strong finish by Liam Enright saw him take the individual bronze medal and lead the boys to team gold. He was well supported by Lochlann Murray 4^th, Rian Gaffney 5^th, Cormac  Breathnach 9^th and Sean Wilmott 13^th.

Silver for Boys and Girls under 11 Teams

There was some very good team running from the boys and girls under11 to take the team silver medals. Leading the girls team home was Etain Ni Mhurchadha in 4^th place. Sibeal Curran came home 8^th a big improvement on her 21^st place last year followed by Ciara Kenny 15^th ten places better than last year. Newcomer Aisling Ní Treasaigh was the 4^th scorer in 15^th place . Ayla Hogna finished 17^th and there was also a big improvement from Sadie Burke finishing 19^th just ahead of Naoise Burke 20^th, Maggie Burke 24^th, Maebh Guiry 25^th, Aoibhinn Hogan 28^th and Anna Power 29^th.

In his first cross country season Tiarnach Costin finished 6^th and led WWAC to silver team medals. Not far behind was David Kiely 8^th, Seadhna O’Tuathaigh 9^th , Cian O’Callaghan 10^th and Eoghan Breathnach 11^th . Caleb Roche 13^th and Billy O’Riordan 14^th completed the team.

Another County Title for Tiarnan Hogan

Tiarnan Hogan successfully defended the county title he won last year with a great individual run to take the boys under 13 title. Moving up an age Daniel Curran had another impressive run to take the silver medal and with Finisk Valley taking bronze it was a clean sweep for the west.  Colm O’ Muiri finished 5^th which was six places better than last year and just behind was Liam Wilmott in 6^th place.  Competing in his first county championships Conor de Burca finished 10^th followed by Shay Connell 12^th, Liam Hogan 14^th, Jamie Kiely 15^th and Joey Ryan 17^th. The team won the bronze medals.

We had just two girls competing under 13. Rachel Keogh added a silver individual medal to the bronze she won the week before taking second place in a very competitive girl’s race with Leah Kiely coming home in 6^th place.

Silver for Under 15 Girls Team

The girls team were led home by Maddie Connors who moved up from the under 14 race and came home in 5^th place.  Saoirse Kinsella was next home in 8^th place closely followed by Natalie Barry 9^th. Ava Ryan in 12^th place completed the scoring four . Ava Kiely finished 15^th and Sheelagh Curran 17^th.

Individual Gold for Noah and Fia, Bronze for Sarah

Noah Commins ran a strong race from gun to tape in the under 17 boys 4500m to add another county title to his growing list of achievements. Fia de Paor also had a very strong performance to take the girls under 19 county title and Sarah O’Riordan finished strongly to take the individual bronze and with Jessica Greiger in 4^th place they easily won the team title to end a great day of cross country running on a winning note. In all seventy West Waterford athletes competed over the two days of the county championships.

Tony’s League Sponsored by Inter Sport Elvery’s gets underway

On Wednesday last eighty four 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. Ché O hArtaigh and Tiarnach Costin were the fastest boys over the 1000m course with a time of 3m50 and the best of the girls was Sibeal Curran just one second behind in 3.51. The top six in the younger age groups covered the 1000m course in under 4mins. Over the longer 2000m lap Tiarnan Hogan was the first home in 7.59 closely followed by  Maddie Connors in 8mins and Arron Connor in 8.03. The next seven across the line all finished under 8 mins 30. If you missed the first week and want to make it on to a team you must run next Wednesday October 15^th. Full results below