What a weekend for the club. We will post later on many members who were out on the roads this weekend but our members who travelled to Gowran in Kilkenny for the National Juvenile Even-Age Cross Country deserve their own post. In really tough conditions all members battled through the mud, hills and competition to put St Catherines on the map as a club with hugely successful juvenile members. Many photos showed boots being dug out of the mud along the course afterwards
The day started with the journey up to make the 11:30 start for the first race which was the 2,000m girls U12 race. We had 6 members lacing up their boots for this after they qualified via an outstanding 2nd place finish in the Munster Championships in Cooraclare last month. In a race that had almost 170 high quality runners from around All Ireland it was sure to be stiff competition but our team showed what they were made of and followed up last years gold on home turf with a team silver today. A national SILVER medal in a field of 18 of the best teams around Ireland. What a run to start us off with where Mary Jane Casey finished 7th in Ireland, soon after Sophie O’Connor, Jill Beecher, Aoife O’Connor, Ailish Bourke and Ciara O’Connell all crossed the line and could celebrate their success. Well done to Templeogue AC on winning gold in a close battle and for Ennis Track AC for bronze.
Next up were the U12 boys where we had two members who qualified. Again a large number of runners took part in this race with close to 170 taking to the line. Ronan Geaney was 22nd over all with Adam Fitzgerald 72nd. Again to have 2 runners well inside the top half of the finishes shows their training paid off and did the club proud.
The U14 girls were up soon after as they ran 3,000m. Continuing the trend of large numbers entered there was 180 girls here. Aimee Kearney, who picked up a small knock in the build up to the race, finished in 34th with and Lara at her first ever nationals finished 96th. It is hard enough to qualify for these events so to get there and perform like they did was outstanding.
Our last runners of the day were in the U16 girls where 4,000m were waiting for them. Charlotte Norman and Ciara Hayes put in strong performances to finish inside the top half of the field. Like all members on the day they can look back with pride on their results.
There is also country and provisional competitions within the races and Mary Jane helped Munster to gold in the U12s, while Ronan Geaney helped the Munster boys to gold also.
Well done to all and a thanks also to coaches, team mates, family and friends as it wouldn’t be possible without all the support. Thanks to all who travelled to cheer them on and we look forward to the next race which is the Munster Juvenile Bs in Riverstick next weekend.
