Sunday the 9th of October saw our Juvenile and Fit For Youth athletes back on the road for the last grass surfaced race on home soil for 2016 as they headed off to the Father Murphy AC course in Athboy for the Meath Un-Even Ages Cross Country Championship. There was relief on the faces of these youngsters on seeing a flat smooth course after the last few mountainous terrains they had faced in recent weeks.
First up were the Under 9 princesses Li Anh Grogan, Sadbh Pitt, Julia Sherlock, Ruth O’Reilly, Laura McCormack and Catherine Hanlon, most of whom were experiencing Championship Cross Country racing for the first time. The excellent coaching skills of the two Ciaras, Bridie, Christine and the rest of the Little Athletics coaches was evident as these girls showed great determination. Sadhb led these budding athletes from the gun and by half way she found herself taking the overall lead before hitting the accelerator and coming home an impressive winner. Li Anh seemed inspired as she saw her team mate setting the pace up front and battled her way through the front runners to earn herself a bronze medal and her first podium finish. Fair play to Catherine, Laura and Julia also: the girls showed that they were not just there to make up the numbers but to compete and showed the crowd that this bunch of athletes are the club’s future as they earned a silver medal in the team competition to add to their recent exploits at the Star of the Sea Cross Country.
Again the male contingent from the under 9 training camp namely Tom Costello, Paul Magee and Andrew Norman have had limited competition experience but that was not going to stand in the way of these young warriors. A last minute injury meant they were one short of a team which was a pity as Andrew ran a cracking race to finish fifth with Tom and Paul also putting in a good graft by both of them finishing in top twelve. I have no doubt that if the injured Daithi had been available that this happy go lucky bunch would have copied the feats of their female counterparts.
We had more familiar faces like Isabel Phillips, Alice Griffin, Lilly O’Malley, Elizabeth Comerford and Kate Gormley joining debutantes Amy O’Reilly and Hannah Brown as the under 11 girls made their way to the start-line of what was one of the most exciting races of the day. This race had the biggest field of the day with Kate leading this ever-improving ensemble home with a top ten finish. The girls who finished in the first half of the field had to settle for fifth overall as a club in what is a very strong age group in Meath.
Returning after impressive performances in the Even Ages Championships Ciaran McCormack, Dylan Ryan and Senan Howlin were joined by training partner Harry Doherty to form a formidable team in the under 11 boys competition. Again the team had been hit by last minute injuries, but this not dampen their spirits as Ciaran went for glory early in the race and stretched the field, opening up a comfortable lead or so he thought. Youngster Dylan had not read the script and in the final 200m mustered up some hidden energy to put in the dash of the day and hunted Ciaran down with inches separating the boys at the finish. Much to the relief of Ciaran he retained his County title after a close shave as the boys made it ‘one two for the white and blue’. Harry and Senan also pushed themselves all the way to the finishing line and were gutted to find out that they had been squeezed out of a medal position in the team event. This team will be back to full strength for the Leinsters and should be title contenders.
Our under 13 girls team was made up of medallists from both the under 12 and 14 teams from the previous week’s racing and much was expected from Aoife McCormack, Rachael Norman, Holly Conlon, Kayla Ryan, Niamh Sherlock, Aleah Kelly, Lucy Eglington, Dervla McNicholas, and Kirsten Kelly Moody with many having already qualified for Meath teams in the upcoming Even Ages Leinster Championship. After a suspect start Kayla Ryan appeared from the masses and gradually made her way to the front runners, showing her talent as she earned the last spot on the podium after overtaking hard working team mate Aoife in the last third of the race. Rachael, Aleah, Niamh and Holly also had fine races as they brought the club’s tally on the county team in this age group to seven. Again there was a lot of frustration among these high achievers as they lagged a mere one point behind local rivals Ratoath for the team silverware.
Unlike the girls, we had a much lower number of male athletes to make up the under 13 boys squad as Pablo Mendoza, John Brown and Adam Smyth were re joined on duty by Ross Lyons who had been struggling with illness in recent weeks. This was a very interesting race, with all four athletes having different race tactics which were all to pay off. Ross had to get a few angry roars from the coaches to make his move going into the final lap, before taking to the front and making the race his own to earn Dunboyne AC their third county champion of the day as he finished without having perspired a bead of sweat. Adam and Pablo were both coming into good form and it showed as they raced to a green Meath vest in the upcoming provincial competitions and with John also having a very strong run in his maiden race on grass these boys earned a well deserved team bronze to the delight of their female entourage as they also generated interest from gel companies as potential club sponsors.
Again when it came to the under 15 girls race the Dunboyne AC team had a healthy list of top performers at their disposal as Nicole Frazer, Katie Greene, Doireann Ni Fhlatharta, Anna Griffin, Kate Reilly, Sarah Magee were joined by yet another club debutantes Honor Hickey and Rachael McManus. There was extra pressure on this team as they had all returned home from Ashbourne last week with a gold team medal from the under 16 and under 14 competitions. The fact that we had enough athletes to make up two teams made for friendly in- house rivalry as they endeavored to be the coaches pets. Doireann continued her winning streak to add to the club’s list of titles, and with Honor having a fantastic first outing as she came in just ahead of Kate in fifth the writing was on the wall as both Katie and Nicole also booked automatic selection for the Royal County in Tyrellspass, Co. Westmeath in a month’s time. Rachael, Anna and Sarah had to pull their weight also in this 3km race, and much to the delight of this talented bunch of athletes Dunboyne AC won both gold and silver for the second year running.
David White was our oldest athlete in action over the weekend as he contested the under 17 boys race: this being his second year competing for our club David showed his potential as he stayed with the front runners in the opening laps and worked hard throughout his three laps to come home eleventh and automatically earn a place on the inter-county competition squad.
As always well done to all our youngsters, some very encouraging performances to ensure Dunboyne AC’s future on the big stage. Thank you to all the coaches and supporters who joined us in Athboy.
Photos to follow.
