The schools’ cross-country finals were held in the unfamiliar setting of Tymon park, Tallaght last Saturday 9th March.On one of the biggest days in the domestic athletics calendar, almost one thousand athletes representing their schools lined out in the 60th edition of the championships, following in the footsteps of Irelands biggest athletics stars. Carraig na bhFear AC had four athletes competing on the day, the course itself was very fast in complete contrast to the conditions in Tramore Valley Park for the qualifying races in Munster. The standard of racing was extremely high as expected given the calibrate of athletes who had qualified. In the Junior girls’ race, Robyn Maher was 3rd scorer for Loreto Fermoy who finished a creditable 7th place from 12 teams competing. Faye O’Riordan placed 42nd overall and was 2nd scorer for St. Angelas who placed 5th in the team competition. Caoimhe Gray-Walsh was also 2nd scorer for the 8th placed Loreto Fermoy team, Caoimhe placed 62nd overall. Finally, the Senior boys race over 6km was run at a blistering pace from the start, Aidan Maher ran an excellent time of 20:49 to place 32nd individually overall. The team competition was extremely close with just 10 points separating 1 st and 3 rd places. Aidan was 2nd scorer for St. Colemans who won the bronze medal, congratulations to Aidan on winning his 2nd schools team medal. Very well done to all four athletes who competed so well in their three races in the competition.
Also taking place on Saturday was the Inter-Varsity cross-country championships in Queens University Belfast. An excellent run from Rian O’ Luasa over the 8k distance to finish well up the field in 34m 20 representing UCD.
The Indoor track and field season continued in Nenagh on Sunday with our race-walkers finally getting their season underway. Laoighse Nott is the newest member of Martin Hurleys’ race-walking squad and made an impressive debut in the U13 1k walk winning the gold medal in a time of 6:22:36 in what looks like another very competitive age group. Congratulations Laoighse! The U16 1.5km walk was a tight affair with 8 athletes taking to the start line and there was very little to separate the first 4 athletes across the line. Robyn Maher had enough in the tank following her cross-country race the preceding day to finish 2 nd overall in a time of 7.55.71. Anna Mullins was just .09 secs outside the bronze medal position in 7:57:31. A great opening competition for the girls that will set them up nicely for a busy year of competition ahead. Aoife Martin had a more comfortable opening race in the U17 girls 1.5 walk taking the gold medal in 7:11:28. However, Aoife won’t be complacent as she knows there is a stiff test ahead in the Nationals but as always, she will be well prepared to execute her race.
Other News: Lots of versatility shown by our members this weekend. Massive congratulations to Darragh O’Keefe who smashed the 3 hour barrier at the Barcelona marathon running 2hr:58. The course features wide, crowded streets so it isn’t unusual to run well over the standard marathon distance, but despite running a bonus half-kilometer extra Darragh still had enough time in hand to comfortably meet his target! Colm Crowley took on the challenging 78k route at Quest Kenmare finishing in an excellent 28th position overall in a time of 4hrs 20s.
Road runners were spoilt for choice this weekend with the Killeagh 4-mile, Courceys AC 5- mile and Banteer 5-mile road races taking place. Diarmuid Kiely ran a fast time of 32:17 to finish 16 th overall in the Courceys AC 5-mile. A large field of 342 runners took part in the Mt.Hilary AC 5-mile road race in Banteer. Great running from Tadhg Crowley to finish in 18th position overall in 29:05. Finally, a shout-out to Eileen O’Riordan who completed the assistant coach course over the weekend in the Mardyke arena.
Parkrun: Brian Hawkins got in some nice training with a solid 19:30 to finish 5th overall in Tramore Valley Park. Richard Hawkins notched up his 50th Parkrun in a time of 21:31.
Featured Image: Coach Martin Hurley with Aoife Martin, Laoighse Nott, Robyn Maher and Anna Mullins. Photo by Jo Martin.