Following the success of the 75th anniversary XC, the club were delighted to host the uneven juveniles and intermediate championships at the Castle Field on Sunday. Weather conditions were exceptional, like a summer’s day and with a large volume of entries, spectators, the racing that followed was top class. The venue was first used in the 1950’s and now 70 plus years later we are back to our roots by giving opportunity to this generation of athletes. Credit is due to our own athletes who did not let the host club down with all doing their part on the day and running to their best ability!
Our girls U9 were first to leave the start line and cover 600m, first home for the club on the day was Aoibheann Doyle (6th). She was followed home by Beibhinn Maher (9th), Orla Campion (12th) and Aoife Deegan (13th) in place. These four combined to place 2nd team on the day. Next home in the race was Daisy Lyons (17th), Aoibhinn Phelan (18th), Oonagh Sweeney (23rd) and Cayla Kirwan (25th). This team finished 5th in the team event! It is wonderful to have eight young girls competing at this level. Keep up the good work!
The boys U9 were fired up for the race with our six running out of their skins! Tom Esmonde showed his class and stormed clear of the field to win with plenty in hand. Luke Kelly ran incredibly well to finish in the top 5! Tom O’ Shea powered home and crossed the line in 10th! Fantastic to have 3 in the top 10! Cian Doyle was a very good 16th on the day. Tomás Shanahan 26th and Ben Delaney (41st) rounded off the race with these placings earning the boys the silver in the team event! Super running.
The U11’s ran 1500m and in the girls event Lily Murphy had plenty to do with a lap to go but she ran an excellent 2nd half to come through for a top 10 finish! Annie Ely did likewise as she made up massive ground on the 2nd circuit also and picked off athletes to finish just behind Lily in 11th! Meadhbh Hall was 16th on the day and Maeve O’ Shea ran brilliantly to come home in 33rd! Doireann Quinlan was 37th and Emily Bergin came home in 61st! These girls combined to take the hard-earned bronze in the team category.
The boys U11 had a great showing from the club with 10 athletes running. Matthew Esmonde ran a brave race from the front and just got pipped in the latter stages but finished an excellent runner up in a fast race! Tom Renehan is going from strength to strength and he came in the top 10 on the day. Darragh Maher was next home in 12th. Fionn Phelan (16th), Geoffrey Morrissey (24th). Senan Phelan (27th), James Ryan (28th), Zach Ryan (41st), Owen Meade (42nd) and Daniel Delaney (47th). The boys did very well in team standings in finishing 2nd and 8th team on the day!
The U13’s had 2,500m on the day and with the rising temperatures it was a tough test over the distance. In the girls event, the girls finished well bunched with Caoimhe Slevin (15th), Abbie Delaney (16th), Muireann Casey (17th) and Helen Renehan (26th) all running very well to finish 3rd club! In the boy’s equivalent, The team of Conor Leahy (16th), Cathal O’ Reilly (24th), Gerard Delaney (28th), Michael Doyle (30th), Billy Flanagan (33rd) and William Morrissey (41st) all ran well to finish 5th club!
We Aisling O’ Reilly and Leyla Ahern in the girls U15 race where Aisling finished runner up in a brilliant battle. It’s great to see Leyla running on the day and long may it continue as she’s loads of ability and ran very well to finish 9th on the day! Well done to both these girls. Likewise in the boys race, Jim O’Neill (7th) and Jack Renehan (8th) were great as they worked well throughout the race which was a tough 3,500m.
Our U17’s of Emma and Kate Delaney were back for more action over the Country and they ran 4000m. The girls ran with the U19 and Junior on the day. The girls were comfortable throughout with Emma just getting the upper hand on this occasion to finish 4th and Kate an excellent 5th! Last of the juveniles in action was Adam Phelan and Jake Bowe, with 2 withdrawals over the weekend with sickness the club were down to two men on the day! With Jake running as U19 and junior and Adam as U17 and junior both boys ran well over the 5000m. Adam was 6th in the U17 and 8th Junior, where Jake was 4th U19 and 7th Junior! Fair play to them!
Finally, it was the turn of the intermediates. Edel Delaney and Lisa Quinlan had 5000m to contest and both did very well. Edel had a fine run throughout and finished 5th! Lisa was plugging away throughout and finished 10th on the day! Brilliant going!
Our men were looking forward to the 8k race and here we had a strong team of 4 of Dylan McLaughlin, Stephen Flanagan, Brendan Delaney and John Renehan. It was great to see Dylan back in the green and gold but as the race progressed, he had to step off course due to illness. We wish him a speedy recovery and know he will be back strong in the coming weeks. Stephen was first clubman over the line in 8th place another solid run from him. Brendan was 20th and John was 27th. Credit to them all for representing the club so well!
All in all it was a fantastic day of action. As always a huge thank you to the club committee, the numerous volunteers and supporters along with a our gratitude to Jim O’ Meara and Pat Cantwell for the use of this fantastic venue. We hope to be back at the Castle Field in 2024!!
Next up is County XC relays! Thurles Crokes is the venue and we hope to have a plenty of teams on the day! Trials are on Tuesday night at training so it’s best to be there. We hope to have juvenile and senior teams on the day. Then we look ahead to the Munster championships in the coming weeks. Training for these championships are imperative so we ask all athletes to continue and up their training ahead of Munster’s.
Spilt the bucket was won this week by Sheila Ryan, €141 was the prize pot! Thanks for your continued support.
