Updates for Weekend of November 4th and 5th

Cork Athletics Intermediate, Novice ‘B’ & Juvenile ‘B’ Cross-Country Championships 2023

We had the enjoyment of hosting the latest Cross Country event here in Cork as the club welcomed clubs from all over Cork to the Intermediate, Novice B and Juvenile Championships on Sunday. This would not have been possible without the volunteers who turned up on a wet Saturday to get the course ready and back again on Sunday to make sure the event ran smoothly. We would like to thank Donal Howard for the use of the land.

On to the racing and we had young and old out to represent the club on a beautiful day for racing. The ground was soft in parts and a hill or two meant it was a challenging run for all.

We started with the U9s who ran one lap of 750m. In the girls we had Aine O’Farrell, Mia Keane and Orlaith Finn who put on great performances and definitely would have been in the running for team prize if there was a 4th member. In the boys Tom O’Keeffe finished 4th overall with top 6 getting medals. Harvey Cunningham, Charlie O’Donovan and Danny Collins made up the team and were 5th team overall and very close to podium.

Next it was the turn of the U11s with 1 loop of 1km to do. Saoirse O’Farrell, Michelle Hamill and Eimer Flynn all ran extremely well in the biggest race of the day with over 100 girls running which is great to see. In the boys we had Alex Keane, James Beecher, Eoin Ronayne and Sean Flynn who were 5th team overall

On to the U13s where we had no girls running but in the boys we had Oscar Cunningham, Noah Keane, Oisin O’Farrell and Sean O’Keeffe. They took on the 1.5km loop which was a challenge for all runners. They were unlucky no to podium but did the club proud with a 4th place team finish.

We moved on to the U15s then as they did 1 loop of 1km followed by a loop of 1.5km for a total of 2.5km. We had out first win of the day with Ciara Hayes putting in a strong performance to finish 1st with Ella Higgins in the medals in 5th . Two very strong runs from the girls. In the boys Cathal Higgins finished in 13th with another excellent run.

The U17 girls went with 2 of the 1.5km loop and we had 3 in the top 10. A huge well done to Charlotte Norman on winning the race in impressive style followed by Ellie Barry in 4th and Clodagh Hayes in 9th. The girls also came home with Silver medal as a team

Next up we had the Novice B women who took on 4km. Our women have done great work making sure they are represented at each cross country this year. Sarah Mulcahy continued her great form this year with a second place finish after a battle with Aoibheann Lawton from Durrus AC. Laura O’Flynn, Deirdre Milbourne, Sarah O’Connor and Marguerite Flynn then helped the team to a superb 3rd place finish. The men could learn a bit from the women. We only had the one member in Novice B and one in the intermediate races. Well done to Paul O’Flynn and Kieran Harte on getting out there and representing the club. Hopefully we can have a mens team out there again in the future.

Paul Brunnock Memorial

On Saturday all roads lead to the Waterford Greenway for races varying from 50k to 5k in memory of West Waterford AC member Paul Brunnock who passed away last year. We had 3 members who competed in the 5km with Senan O’Reilly finishing 1st, Stephen Carr in 2nd and John Morrisson in 6th.  In the marathon Ted O’Leary put in another great run and added to his overall number of marathons.

Posted in Juvenile News, Senior News.