Munster Novice and Juvenile Even-Age Cross Country Championships
All roads led to Cooraclare on Sunday for the Munster Novice and Juvenile Even-Age Cross Country Championships. The long drive didn’t put members off and it was well worth the drive for anyone who did make it there. A pristine course was waiting for all with both a 1km and 2km loop with some doing one and others doing a combination of both. Members had the joy of taken on a rolling course with any downhill met with what seem to be an even longer uphill. The last half kilometre was a pull the whole way until a slight downhill sprint finish to the line. If you had your hill training done it made for quick times.
On to the racing and it started with the Under 10s. Mia Keane and Eimear Flynn kicked the day off with a 1km. Both did extremely well with fast times recorded. On to the boys where Sean Flynn was the our only representative and he took on the same course and had a great race. Both those had over 100 kids taking part and all 3 did the club proud
The under 12s were next up and they had 2 loops of the 1km course to do. Mary Jane Casey continued here great form finishing 2nd overall in a very close battle. Sophie O’Connor, Jill Beecher, Aoife O’Connor, Ciara O’Connell and Ailish Bourke all helped to make sure the team finished 2nd overall and qualify for the upcoming All-Ireland. Mary jane and Sophie also helped the Cork team to silver. With over 135 runners in this race all of the team were in top 50s. Amazing performances. In the boys Ronan Geany, Adam Fitzgerald, Alex Keane, Cillian Fitzgerald, James Beecher and Sean Cummins were 6th team out of 12. Again super running from all and Ronan coming away with a medal after a 7th place finish and also a silver medal with the Cork team.
The under 14s had 3km to do which meant a 1km loop followed by a 2km loop. Aimee Kearney with an extremely strong finish battled her way to 3rd place and this was enough to help the Cork team to gold also. Lara was 21st and with Caoimhe Burke in 50th this was superb showing from the girls in a race with close to 100 people and not much in it timewise showing on fast these races can be. The boys U14 followed soon after with Kenneth O’Connell finishing 5th over all and Noah Keane next home for St Catherines. It was blistering pace throughout and they all put in huge effort getting to the finish. Kenneth also got a gold medal for being part of the winning Cork team.
The last of our juveniles for the day were the U16 girls with a tough 2 loop to make it 4km race. We had Charlotte Norman, Ciara Hayes, Ella Higgins and Amy O’Connell all out there continuing the form of previous members and doing the club proud. Charlottes run mean gold medal with the Cork team. It was great to see them continue to represent the club at this age group which isn’t always done.
It was then the turn of the adults. The women were first up with 5km, this is a step up from the normal distance of 4km so this added to the challenge. Sarah Mulcahy had a strong race and finished 14th. And we all know cross country isn’t just about individuals and we were delighted to see with the help of Catherine Clancy, Marguerite Flynn and Sarah O’Connor that the womens team finish 4th in Munster. We’d like to congratulate and thank the team for getting out and competing. This was followed by the mens race and 6km to race. David O’Connor, John Beecher, Shane Kearney and Jonathan Kenneally made sure the club had a mens team as well.
More photos here
Rebel Run 10km
Well done to Chris O’Connell on competing in the 10km in Bishopstown on Sunday. He was our only member there and put in a great time of 41:47 to finish 40th overall out of a large field of almost 500 people.
