Team medals galore as Glenmore excel at Juvenile Cross Country Championships

Cross country season made a welcome return to the athletics calendar for the juveniles of the County with the even age-groups County Championships on Sunday last in the beautiful setting of Bellurgan Park. 

Basking in autumnal sunshine, the Glenmore athletes put in some great performances across every age-group.

First up was the non-Championship race for the u8s where Sarah Cranny, Aidan Galligan, Archie Oliver & Cian O’Reilly got their first taste of cross country running, earning themselves their first cross country medals.

The u10 girls got the championship races off to a start in the 850m race. Caoimhe Galligan put in a superb performance, narrowly missing out on a medal in 4th place. She was closely followed home by Clara O’Neill in 8th position, Una O’Reilly in 11th and Aoibheann Finnegan in 14th place. 

Together the girls earned themselves the 3rd team prize. Well done also to Hannah O’Reilly, Erin Gallagher and Erin Hughes who all ran well.

Not to be outdone by the girls, Glenmore’s u10 boys put in some similar performances.  Conor Finnegan had a fantastic sprint to the finish line to take 4th place.  Aaron Finnegan was hot on his heels in 6th, followed by Jamie Kane in 15th & Ethan Kane in 16th place. 

These boys were also rewarded with a 3rd place team medal.  Colin Oliver, Charlie Gallagher, Alex McGovern, James Duffy, Jack O’Neill, Ciaran Doyle, Caillum Murphy & Thomas Cumiskey completed the field for Glenmore AC, with some of the boys running their first cross country race, and many of whom were running up an age-group.

Glenmore had four girls in the U12 2000m race, which covered two 1,000M laps.  Coming off the back of last year’s 5th place finish in the All-Irelands, Meabh Walsh is an athlete who is going from strength-to-strength. 

She was in the lead group of two from the start and led for most of the race.  She slipped back into 2nd place with about 600m to go, to claim a well-deserved silver medal.  Clara O’Connor, Daisy Mae Caldwell and Niamh Cranny also ran in u12s race, finishing in the middle of the field.

The boys U12 2000m race was one of the biggest fields of the day with close to 40 boys lining up at the start. Glenmore AC had seven athletes amongst them, with a few medal contenders in the mix.  

As expected, it was a battle of the green from start to finish with Calum Murphy and Patrick Duffy going head-to-head around the two-lap course.  The boys worked together throughout the race to create a sizeable gap to the rest of the field. 

With 500m to go, Calum stamped his command on the race to pick up the pace to storm home in 1st place, with Patrick following behind in 2nd.  A brilliant performance by both of these boys, with Patrick running up an age-group. 

Dylan Murphy followed the boys home in 6th place, with Ethan Nichols in 11th.  Together the boys took a well-earned 1st team prize. Oisin Gallagher, Darragh Ryan & Cillian O’Reilly also ran really well, finishing well up in the field.  A great start to the cross-country season for these lads.

Next up it was the turn of the U14 girls 3000m race. Just short of 30 girls gathered at the start of the two-lap course, with Molly Anne Moore & Sophie Cumiskey amongst them. 

Molly Anne got off to a superb start, placing herself well up the field in the break-away group of three athletes, where she remained for most of the race.  She dropped off the pace in the last 500m but sprinted up the final ascent to the finish-line to claim a 3rd place finish. 

A great result from this athlete who has shown that hard work and determination at training pays off. Sophie Cumiskey put in a solid performance in her first cross country race of the season.  She dug deep around the two-lap hilly course to finish in the middle of the field.

Last up for Glenmore was Patrick Oliver, running in the boys U14 3000m race.  This was Patrick’s debut race across 3000 metres and he equipped himself extremely well to finish in the top half of the field.