Dunboyne AC Seniors at the National Novices Cross Country Championships – Sunday 17th December

Waterford IT hosted the 2017 National Novices Cross Country Championships last Sunday 17th December.
The WIT Arena provided athletes and supporters with fantastic facilities including dressing rooms, cafeterias and ample parking. There was a large attendance as you would expect at an All Ireland event, helped by the mild conditions and Dunboyne had 9 competitors ready to do battle with the best Novice athletes in the country.
In the women’s race we had Laura Buckley, Eva McNelis, Emilia Dan, Claire Ni Fhaircheallaigh and Clodagh Dunphy lining up in a large field with the cream of Novice grade athletes from across the four provinces.
Laura Buckley ran an absolute cracker, being up with the leaders throughout and showing a real positive and determined attitude all around the hilly course. She finished agonisingly just outside the podium positions in 4th place but this was a huge run from Laura on the national stage.
Many congratulations on a great run, Laura.
Not too far behind Laura, in an excellent 18th position was Eva McNelis. This was a very strong run from Eva who was well to the fore throughout the race and battled impressively to finish so highly up this huge field. Well done Eva.
Emila Dan came home next after one of her usual strong, battling and determined runs. Always pushing hard, Emilia maintained a strong pace in the tough conditions to finish strongly in 37th place. Good run Emilia.
Next home was Claire Ni Fhaircheallaigh who also ran very strongly on the day to finish 51st. This was a fine performance from Claire who dug deep throughout and negotiated the tough terrain very well to ensure she finished well up this high calibre field. Well done Claire.
Clodagh Dunphy was next in 84th after digging in and grinding out a strong run on the day. Clodagh battled hard all the way round and delivered a very good performance in this National event. Good running Clodagh.
The Meath team finished a very close 5th place overall in a very tight inter county competition.
As a group it was very impressive running from the ladies and as a club they finished in a comfortable 2nd place overall but heartbreak was to occur when it emerged that due to a technicality from an administrative issue their individual results were not included in the club competition and therefore their placings were not counted.
This is currently being appealed.
A very disappointing end for the ladies who were understandably very dejected but they should all be extremely proud of their performances on the day, as we all are.
Well done ladies.
Our men’s representatives comprised of Niall Cornyn, Rory Kavanagh, Morgan McDonagh and Loughlin Campion as they lined up in a massive field of nearly 200 Novice athletes from all over the island.
Niall, who has been incredibly consistent for some time now, ran another really impressive race here and finished in a fantastic 14th position.
This was a very strong run from Niall as he was mixing it in the leading group with the best Novice grade athletes from the gun.
Well done Niall on a super run.
Niall was followed home by Rory Kavanagh who dug deep to finish in 54th place in this huge field of runners.
Rory battled hard over the hilly course and kept up the strong pace to the line. Good running Rory.
Morgan McDonagh was next over the line in 92nd position after a solid run on the day. Morgan worked hard throughout and finished strongly after putting in a big effort. Good run Morgan.
Loughlin Campion was next home in the middle of the field digging deep throughout and keeping up a strong pace as he equipped himself very well against the best cross country runners of this grade in the country.
Well done Loughlin.
The men worked very hard and well done to them for holding their own in this extremely high calibre event.
Well done to all our Dunboyne AC athletes in what was the final cross country championship of 2017.
As usual you did our club proud.