There were plenty of thrills, spills and smiling faces on Sunday September 25, at the 2022 Co. Longford Primary Schools Cross Country Championships and Post-Primary races which were staged at Moyne Community School, with the venue an excellent location in which to host the event once again. The mainly firm ground underfoot made for fast running and the large crowd present were treated to plenty of exciting racing. READ MORE BELOW PHOTO Newtownforbes took over the podium after the opening race of the day with Jessica Neary first across the line of the 3rd/4th class girls soon followed by classmates Holly and Georgia Brady. A superb performance by Newtown saw eight finishers from the school in the top twenty. The boys race saw a large entry as Melview’s Andrew Fitzpatrick led the big field home ahead of Dylan Reynolds with Donncha Farrell in third. The 5th/6th class girls’ race was won following a strong performance by Sophia Carey of Newtownforbes ahead of Melview duo Sinead Masterson and Sarah Connolly. Sophia completed a clean sweep of victories at the schools cross country having been 3rd/4th class winner in 2019 and 5th/6th class winner in 2021 with no event having taken place in 2020. Ardagh’s Rian McCaffrey was an impressive winner of the boys 5th/6th class race ahead of John Fitzpatrick and Timothy Sheridan. Newtownforbes and Melview each secured top spot in two of the team standings over the four races. The Harry Farrell Perpetual Shield recognises the best overall performance by a school with points awarded based on each top twenty finisher and a schools' team placing in the standings. For the second successive year, Scoil Mhuire of Newtownforbes emerged victorious having featured prominently at the front of most races. Melview scored 80 points more than last year to close the gap but it was not enough to oust Newtown. St. Matthew’s of Ballymahon were very well represented on the day and took third place. Over 100 children from Longford qualified from the event for the Connacht Primary
PICTURES | Thrills, spills and smiling faces at Longford Primary Schools Cross Country Championships
