WWAC Atletes Win 2 Individual Medals at Munster Cross Country Championships
It was a long trip back to West Clare for our young athletes last Sunday. Our bus departed bright and early at 7am and with two short stops we arrived at the venue before 11am. There was a huge volume of traffic on the narrow roads close to the course and this delayed the start by 15mins but our athletes had walked the course and we well warmed up by the time the first race got underway. Despite the rain of last week conditions were good underfoot but it was a tough challenging course with a series of short steep hills to negotiate on each lap. There were big fields in all the races and it was tough to get among the medal winners but WWAC’s Fia de Paor put in a strong performance to finish 6th and take our first individual medal of the day in the under 16 girls race. Grainne Moore has been competing in these championships since she was under 10 and last Sunday it all came together for her as she finished 10th in the under 18 race to claim her first individual medal of the championships.
Good Running from WWAC’s under 12 athletes
Our first squad in action were the under 12 girls who ran two laps of the course so had to take on the steep hill twice. This was the most difficult course these athletes had encountered and they stuck to their task and all came home in the top 100. The team was led home by Ellie Mai Doherty who put in a very strong performance to finish 34th. She was followed home by Leah Kiely 60th and this was a big improvement on her 87th place last year. Next across the line was Amy Cosgrave in 78th and that was also an improvement on her position last year. Isobel Daly was next home in 90th and not far behind was Eile de Paor in 92nd place.
In the boys under 12 Jarleth Hurney led the team home in 27th place which was ten places better than last year. Kevin Russell competing in his first Munster Championship was next home in 58th place. Colm O’Mhuiri showed that consistent training pays off as he also improved by ten places to finish 74th and hot on his heels came Tiernan Hogan in 77th.
County Medal for Isabelle Gaffney
Next to toe the line were the girls from West Waterford’s under14 team. The team was made up mainly of our under 13 athletes with Isabelle Gaffney the only one under 14. The girls put in a strong showing. They were led home by Isabelle who put in a strong run over the last 200m to move from sixteenth to 13th, just missing out on an individual medal by one place. Isabelle got her medal when she scored on the county team that finished third. Ava Kiely made a huge improvement this year finishing 38th way up on her 103rd place last year. Clipping at her heels was Sophie Beresford 39th who improved 6 places from last year. Ava and Sophie just missed out on county medals as the final scoring places on the Waterford were 33rd and 36th.Luisne de Paor was next home in 54th place which was another huge improvement on her 106th place last year. Saoirse Kinsella took a tumble early in the race but quickly got back to her feet and finished 66th and Suin Cunningham completed the team in 76th place. By finishing third the Waterford team qualified for the All Irelands and with ten athletes on the team WWAC have qualified Isabelle, Ava, Sophie, Luisne and Saoirse for the All Ireland on Nov 19th in Gowran.
Individual Medal for Fia as Team Qualifies for All Ireland
The under 16 girls 4000m was run over two laps of the longer course with an extra hill in each lap to test the athletes. Fia de Paor went out with the leading bunch and as the race progressed was always in the top six and came home to claim WWAC’s first individual medal of the day. Sarah Gaffney came through next in 25th place and a much improved Sarah O’Riordan finished 42nd, twenty places better than last year. Lauren Cliffe made it in to the top 60. Waterford were third in the inter county race with Fia, Sarah Gaffney and Sarah O’Riordan all scoring on the team. This was the first time Sarah was a scoring member of the county team. All four girls qualified on the county team for the All Ireland Championships in Gowran and they also qualified as a club team as they finished in 4th place.
Individual and Team Medals for under 18 Girls
The under 18 and 20 girls races were run together over 5000m. This was a step up for the girls who are used to running over 4000m and the extra 1000m over such a tough course was difficult for all the athletes. Grainne Moore put in a superb run to take her first individual medal when she finished 10th in the under 18 girls. Eabha Hickey got the better of older sister Doireann for the first time with Eabha 24th and Doireann 25th. The Waterford team finished 3rd in the under 20 race with all three girls on the team. We also had an added surprise this morning when I checked all the results this morning to discover that the girls finished 3rd clubteam in the under 20 race.
Good Run from Naoise in the Boys under 18
We had just one competitor in the final race of the day Naoise Mac Mhurchada in the under 18 boys race. This race was also run in conjunction with the under 20 boys race and when off at a very fast pace. Naoise hung back in the 30’s on the first lap but made his way through the field over the next two laps to finish 13th and just miss out the individual medal by one place. This was a testing run for Naoise out of his age and he can look forward to the under 17 boys in two weeks time.
Tony’s League to Start on Wednesday next 25th of Oct
It will be a long while before we forget the rain that fell last Wednesday and with the schools closed and local roads flooded we had to postpone the first day of our winter league. We will start next Wed and even though there is rain forecast on Wednesday the league will go ahead. This will be the first part of the League that determines the team placings. You will also get a chance to run this on Wed Nov 1st and after that the times will be fixed. So if you want to be on a team for the league you must run at least one of these two dates.
