Success for West Waterford Athletes at Munster Cross Country Championships
Over 50 young athletes travelled to compete in the first section of the Munster Cross Country Championships last Sunday. The weather was ideal cold but dry and the course was what might be called a real cross country course rough under foot and a long steady upward pull to test the stamina of the young athletes. All of our competitors were well prepared for the challenge of the championships and all ran well on the day. There was a huge entry in both the under 10 girls and boys events and even though all our athletes ran with great determination they had no support from the other clubs so the county team didn’t figure in the team honours with the events dominated by Tipperary Cork and Clare.
Six Athletes Win Individual Medals and Qualify to Represent Munster at the All Ireland Championships
Top finishers of the day were Mark Shalloe and Kate Veale who both finished 5th in their respective races. Kate found it hard to work her way to the front of the race and found herself in the middle of the bunch after 400m but she worked hard to move up the field and finished strongly to take 5th position in the under 14 girls. Mark Shalloe was up with the leading bunch from the start of the boys under 18 and held on strongly to finish 5th. Elma Nugent showed how much she has improved in the space of a year with a great run to finish 6th in the under 18 girls and Jenny Hurley came with a late surge to take 11th place in the same race. Daniel McCarthy was always in the top twelve in the boys under 16 with 300m to go he was in 11th place but he picked up the pace and with a great finishing kick moved up to 7th place. David Early made sure of his place on the Munster team when he finished 11th in the under 14 boys.
County Gold for under 18 Boys and Girls
The county fielded strong teams in the under 18 events and were rewarded with gold in both races. Elma Nugent was West Waterfords only representative on the girl’s team while Mark Shalloe was a scoring member of the boy’s team.
Bronze for under 12 & 16 Boys Teams
It was not until the boys under 12 race that Waterford began to figure in the inter county events. Three clubs combined to make up the scoring members of the team. Sean Curran has been improving with every training session and was the second Waterford man home in 18th place not far behind was Tholm Reddy in 24th. This was a first Munster cross-country medal for both these young athletes and both were competing a year out of age and should go well in the under 11championships on Nov.18th. West Waterford provided four of the scoring six athletes in the under 16 team. Daniel Mc Carthy was 7th and a much-improved Joe Conway was 19th. Just back in action after they exploits on the hurling and football field JimCurran 33rd and Tom Curran 39th completed the scoring team. These four also combined to take bronze in the inter club event behind Ennis and Togher athletic clubs. They were cheered on throughout the race by team member Brian Hallissey who is out of action for the next few weeks because of a broken wrist. All in West Waterford wish him a speedy recovery and hope he will be back in action for the All Ireland Championships.
Bronze for under 16 Girls
The under 16 girls under lined their improving form by taking the bronze medals in a very competitive. Leading the way was Edel Roche in 22nd, followed by Rebecca Maher 25th Clodagh Gallagher 35th Claire Collins 42nd while Kate Kennedy 44th , Colleen Whelan 45th , and Lisa Houlihan 54th completed the team. All in all a very successful day for our athletes and they can now look forward to competing in the All Ireland Championships.
All the results:
Girls under 10: Aisling Mullanney 33, Rachel Wyley 43, Rachel Morrissey 45, Chloe Beecher 47, Ellen Curran 64, Erica Crotty 82, Jade Morrissey 88, roisin Uniacke 92.
Boys under 10: Oisin O’Manoney 25, Kevin Crossan 55, John Curran 56.
Girls under 12: Lorraine Bray 29, Cliona Ryan 41, Gemma Wyley 45, Sarah Wyley 48, Lauren O’Sullivan, Dominique O’Mahoney 93.
Boys under 12: Richard Casey 69, Shane Nugent 73.
Girls under 14: Una Mc Grath 76, Leann Herlihey 79, Cara Mullanney 81, Kate Hickey 84, Dana Dudakova 94, Lauren Kelly 97, Michelle Maher 103.
Boys under 14: Cian Ryan 60.
Easons League off to Flying Start
There was a big turn out for the first session of the Easons winter league. All the under 10’s ran the half lap with all the older athletes running the full lap. Session 2 will take place on Friday at 4pm. You must have run in one of the first two sessions if you want to be on a team for the rest of the league.
Upcoming Events
Friday 26th Oct. Easons League Session Two
Friday 2nd Nov Easons League Session Three
Sunday 11th Nov Munster under 9,11,13,15,17,19 Carrignavar Cork
