With the cobwebs now well and truly shaken off, our Juvenile athletes traveled in droves to start the business end of the Cross Country Season when they took the short journey to the Meath Even Ages Cross Country hosted by Saint Andrews AC in Ashbourne on Sunday the 4th of October 2015. With the recent good spell of weather the course was in good condition and as our budding Olympians had reached a decent level of fitness there was confident mood amongst the Dunboyne AC contingent.
We got the proceedings off to a great start when in the opening race of the day Erin O’Toole left it late to put in a huge effort up the home straight to win silver in the girls under 10 race, missing out on gold by inches. With teammates Isabelle Phillips, Amy Frazer and Lily Ni Mhaille all showing improvement in every race it was no surprise to hear that they won bronze in the team event.
The boys only had three in action in this well run event, and Ciaran McCormack fought all the around the course, alternating the lead throughout the race with his usual rivals before digging deep and coming up with the dash of the day to claim another Meath title. Mathieu Kieffer also showed his fantastic finishing power when he came from afar to claim bronze in this very entertaining race. Reuban Finnegan was our third boy in action in the under 10 boys race and seemed to enjoy the roars of encouragement from the female entourage on the home front. It was a pity that there was no fourth athlete available to make up a team for this age group as we have no doubt they would have earned a place on the podium. These athletes showed great character and echoed the importance of fighting all the way to the finish line.
In the girls under 12 race we have no problems with the numbers, with Aideen Reilly and Sophie Dolan moving up an age group to join Aoife McCormack, Rachael Norman, Holly Conlon, Kayla Ryan, Kate Griffin, Dervla McNicholas and Niamh Sherlock to make up a very impressive team sheet. Aoife ran a very intelligent race and went on to claim bronze in a race that saw positions at the head of the race swap throughout the 1500m. With all this jolly bunch in good shape the girls finally got the monkey off their shoulder when they surpassed the talented Ratoath AC team to claim gold in the team event for the first time ever- it looks like up to eight of the girls could have earned their place on the Meath Team for the upcoming Leinster Championship. In the boys race Adam Smyth moved up an age group to join Ross Lyons in a competition where Ross was continuing his run of good results when he took silver (though he seemed not to be out of breath at the finish line which leads some of the clubs elders believe he left this race behind him). Adam also had a fantastic race finishing 5th and earning a place on the County team at the fast approaching Provincial races.
We had a our usual impressive number of under 14 Fit for Youth girls in action when Lauren McConnell, Kate Reilly, Nicole Frazer, Sarah Magee, Doireann Ni Fhaltharta, Jessica Clarke and Anna Griffin took to the start line. After the recent good form at the Star of the Sea Cross Country there was no surprise when these girls took gold in the team event to shadow our younger teams, with Doireann taking gold in the process. The girls showed a good work ethic as they went to the front of the field from the off and again dominated the automatic selection for the Meath team for the Leinster Even Ages Cross Country Championship being held in Moyvalley on the 25th of October. Our Under 14 lads showed their potential for the 2015 season as Conor Leane, though out of his age group, took silver behind a well known National medal winner, as Adam Conlon and Marc Leane all dug deep and finished in the top six. Luckily for the boys only one club has their full panel for this age group so despite only being a trio they earned a well deserved silver medal in the team event.
After a year out Nicola Duffy was competing in the Meath Championship for the first time in an age and was unlucky not to medal when she came home fourth also earning her automatic place in inter county competitions. Nicola is starting to get her fitness back and at her rate of improvement there is doubt that she will be a contender for the Irish Schools team come March 2016. Our only debutant on the day was Fit for Youth new boy David White who was a bundle of nerves at the start line. David in his very first cross country has put himself into contention for a county call up later in the month for the Leinsters.
Well done to all with the usual appreciation for all the coaches and supporters who traveled. A big thank you to Saint Andrews for a well run event.
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