The Avondhu

Cross makes a comeback

The cross country season kicked off last Sunday in Ballynoe with the East Cork Athletics Division senior, masters, junior and juvenile even age championships. The event was hosted again by St Catherines AC and as always they put on a very well organised, high standard event.

The weather played its part with warm autumn sunshine shining down on the pristine south facing fields of Frank Hayes farmland with panoramic southern views. The races got underway on the 1000 and 1500 metre loops, as the buzzing of distant rally cars could be heard in every direction as the Cork 20 International Tarmac Rally wound its way around the network of local roads surrounding the venue.

ADULT RACES

The result of the day yet again was our senior women’s team taking team gold and winning the title for the third time in four years. The team was led ably by Jennifer Goggin Walsh who was second placed overall to 2018s national novice XC champion,

Midleton ACs Sinead Keavney. Club adults/junior endurance coach Rhona Lynch led the charge behind for the team places with Siobhan Walsh and Sinead Kearney making the scoring four. A tight result with the team winning by the minimum over a strong Midleton team. Rhona also won her masters category along with winning team gold to boot with the masters 3 of Jennifer and Siobhan. Jennifer and Siobhan took silver and bronze individual respectively in their O35 masters competition.

Our men’s team, as is now customary, were languishing in the girls’ shadow, coming in 4th team in the senior competition. Our masters men fared slightly better with Willie Walsh taking their sole individual medal with silver in the O45 category and led the O45s team of Richard Hawkins, David O’Riordan and Liam Colbert to silver medals.

GIRLS

U10: Only one individual racer in this very first race of the day in Ellie Galvin who toed the line in her first ever race. U12: Our girls U12 have a nice team forming and fielded 7 to take a bronze team medal. U14: Another group that have begun to strengthen their numbers and with that they secured a well worked team silver.

U16: Team silver for a team of three where no club were able to field full teams. U18 and junior: Rebecca Kelleher and Mary Dorgan taking individual gold and silver. Team silver for the girls by the minimal of margins from Youghal AC in 1st place. junior girls: Rebecca Kelleher 2nd and Mary Dorgan 3rd individual with Carraig taking the silver team medal.

GUYS

U10: A strong team of seven acquitted themselves admirably to take a hard fought team bronze. U12: Absolutely wonderful to have a team of 9 boys toe the line for this race. The Carraig lads were level on points with Midleton but took the silver team medal on countback showing the importance of every race position and team member. The countback is decided on the position of the teams 4th scoring runner, Midleton’s being ahead of ours. Tough margins but that’s the beauty of XC and the importance of every individual fighting

for every position.

U14: Cian Ryan was our first individual medallist of the day taking gold and leading his the team to 2nd place overall. U16: Aidan Maher led from the gun, taking another individual gold and set the tone of a strong team performance to take team fold from Midleton AC in second place. U18 and junior boys: Eoin Quirke taking individual gold and Timmy Hawkins bronze in both races with Carraig also taking the gold team medal in both races.

SUMMARY

In the overall competition for the best juvenile club our boys are looking in a strong position to retain the Jerry Russell Cup for another year in the second round on October 17, but unfortunately our girls failed to field teams in two age groups and have a mountain to climb if they have any chance to retain the Maureen O’Connell Trophy. All will be decided when we host round two on the Mullins family farm lands on October 17 in White’s Cross.

SOUTH MUNSTER SCHOOLS TRACK AND FIELD CHAMPIONSHIPS

Friday evening in MTU saw the final track and field competition of the year with the belated running of the South Munster schools event for junior and intermediate boys and girls. Much credit is due to Liam O’Brien and team for ensuring the event took place with the start of the cross-country season on the same weekend.

A large entry from athletes in Cork and Kerry showed there was still great appetite for the event at this late stage of the year and there was a high standard of competition in all races. Carraig Na bhFear AC had strong representation with 9 athletes in total participating.

Áine Sheridan ( Colaiste Mhuire) was 4th in junior girls 1,500m. Rebecca Kelleher (Scoil Mhuire) was 1st in both inter girls 1500m and 3000m. Caoimhe Geoghan (St Mary’s, Midleton) finished 7th overall from the 2 heats of the inter girls 100m and 4th in the 200 metres. In the junior boys 1500m Aidan Maher (St Colman’s Fermoy) finished 2nd and Peter Hawkins (Rochestown College) 8th, both with new pbs.

In the inter boys 1,500m Eoin Quirke (Midleton CBS) and Timmy Hawkins (Rochestown College) both had pbs. Eoin in 1st place in a close finish with an impressive 4:07:92 and Timmy 3rd in 4:25:78. Timmy was in action again in the 800m taking the silver medal in another very close finish for the podium positions.

In the inter boys 400m Cathal Whooley (Scoil an Chroí Naofa) narrowly missed out on the bronze medal with a strong finish recording a time of 58.66 in his first ever race over the distance. Brian Hawkins (Rochestown College) was the sole representative in the field events junior boys 4kgs shot putt throwing 9.06m for silver.

OTHER NEWS

Well done to Christy Murphy running well again this week in the Glen River Park Run.

Congratulations to Tony Dunne who finished an impressive 14th out of 134 starters in the recent Quest Beara 12 Adventure Race. Quest Beara 12 is a 151.9k multisport event with a 12-hour completion deadline alternating between cycling, kayaking and running.

Tony completed over 40km of gruelling trail and mountain running to finish in a total time of 9hrs 56mins.

Saturday saw Tony in action again in the Moby Dick Triathlon along with David Maher who was competing in his first triathlon. Tony finished 6th in his category and David an impressive 1st junior home, both athletes running the 6k course in 24 minutes to finish strongly. Well done to both.

LOOK FORWARD

This weekend is full of athletics activities again with day one of the Munster athletics performance squads taking place in Templemore Track on Saturday. Seventeen of our junior group have been invited to attend the four days of winter coaching that will put them in contact with Athletics Ireland development coaches for their individual disciplines.

On Sunday the cross country season rolls on to the first day of four county championships. The county novice, U23, junior, U19 and club relay competitions will be fought for in the County board XC venue in Riverstick.

SPORT

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2021-09-23T07:00:00.0000000Z

2021-09-23T07:00:00.0000000Z

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The Avondhu (Ireland)