Juvenile News January 29 2024

David Kiely wins  McGrath’s Newsagents Juvenile Colligan Shield

It was great to be back in action again for the McGrath Newsagents Colligan Shield Juvenile race. Fifty three young athletes made the trip on Sunday 14^th January to take part in the race. This event is not about how fast you run but how accurate you are in predicting your time. There was great excitement among our younger athletes as they waited their turn to go and the seniors warming up for their race added to the atmosphere

First off were a group of young athletes who set themselves a target of 15mins. The clock counted down and each athlete went off at their predicted time. A big group went off around 11mins, at 10.30 and 10min marks and PaidiO’Dea at 7.30 was the last off.  Just seven athletes ran faster than their predicted time.  First across the line was Jess Collins who was 1m16secs faster than her predicted time. Others to run over half a minute faster than they predicted were Jack Wall, Shane Power, Riley Mansfield and Ben Collins. Jamie Kiely and last years winner Eoin Tobin were less than fifteen seconds faster than their predicted time. As the clock was ticking down the last 10 secs Victor Mullins was watching the clock closely and as it struck zero it was David Kiely who  crossed the line to become winner of the race bank on his predicted time.   David was just six seconds ahead of Andy Zakis who were running in his first Colligan Cup.  All six prize winners David, Andy, Vaughan Daly, Aaron Davis, Mario Zakis, Suín Ní Thuathaigh crossed the line one after the other less than 25 secs outside their time.

Fastest time on the day was by Tiernan Hogan who covered the 2km in 9.31 and Ava Kiely was the fastest girl running the distance in 10mins. Daithi Fergusonand Páide O’Dea also ran under 10mins.   

Well done to all the young athletes who completed the course and a big thank you to Albert McGrath of McGraths Newsagent for his continued sponsorship of this event. Thanks also to all our stewards and officials who helped to run the event and to Victor Mullins whose came up with the idea for the event and who is on hand each year to pick the winner. Full results  listed below.

County Schools Cross Country a Great Success

There was a large turnout from schools all across Waterford for the Waterford Schools Cross Country Championshipsm held in St Augustine’s College on Friday last. West Waterford athletes competed for all the local schools and enjoyed considerable success at the event. Full results on next week notes