All Ireland “B” Cross Country & Inter County Cross Country Relay Championships

Boys U/17

Boys U/15

26 athletes travelled to Dundalk on Sunday to compete in the All Ireland “B” and Inter-County Cross Country Relay Championships with Jack Hickey providing great cause for excitement amongst those present from the club by posting a great performance in the Boys U/15 event to claim an individual bronze medal.  Both our Boys U/15 and U/17 teams also proved their ability to compete at this level by helping Tipperary to claim silver and bronze medals in the Inter-County events.

The day began with the Girls U/11 race where four athletes were part of the County team as well as representing the Club.  Leading them home was Helen Cleere who finished an excellent 23^rd followed by Louise Hickey in 55^th, Tara Gleeson 69^th and Una Duggan 104^th.  The girls finished 10^th club whilst helping Tipperary to finish 5^th in the team competition.  Five athletes represented us in the Boys race with Jake Bowe finishing very strongly in 22^nd followed by Aaron McLoughlin in 26^th.  Aaron Moore came through in 46^th with Liam Ryan 71^st and Cormac Burke 74^th.  Jake and the two Aaron’s were part of the Tipperary team that just finished out of the medals in 4^th place while the club team finished 8^th overall.

Emma Gleeson, Aine Duggan and Gavin Ryan represented the club at U/13 level and finished 36^th, 84^th and 54^th respectively from very large fields.  In the Girls U/15 race Katie Bergin in 42^nd, Aisling Dwyer in 54^th and Aoibheann Duggan 62^nd all ran very well.

Our best result was to come in the Boys U/15 event where Jack Hickey threw caution to the wind to mix it with the leading bunch.  His strength told as the race unfolded and particularly in the latter stages where he held off the strong challenge of a number of athletes to clinch third spot and win a national individual bronze medal.  With the back-up of Dylan McLoughlin in 28^th, Sean Burke in 43^rd, Charlie Tobin in 48^th and Cormac Moloney in 50^th along with Michael O’Brien, Dundrum in 13^th the boys combined to lead Tipperary to the silver team medals while the club team finished an excellent fourth overall.

Not to be outdone our Boys U/17 provided the backbone of the Tipperary team and with Jack Moore finishing in 22^nd, Nathan Bowe 38^th and Bill Hogan 40^th they helped the team to third place and with the addition of Niall Moore in 41^st and Lorcan Troy in 48^th the club team secured fifth place overall.

Our final athlete to compete on the day was Aoife Dwyer who was part of the Tipperary Girls U/12 Relay team that finished 6^th overall in a very competitive competition.

A total of 1 individual and 10 team medals were secured by our athletes from this National competition and each and every athlete who took part on the day should be very proud of their performances over what was a demanding course with a lot of soft underfoot conditions.