County Novice Cross Country titles for Cooney and Ryan-Ellis

Galbally was the venue on Sunday for the County Novice Cross Country Championships, hosted by Mooreabbey Milers AC.

Great credit must go to the host club for having a great 1km course for the programme of races. The underfoot was very good and warm sunshine greeted the athletes as they descended on the venue.

These Championships were very well supported by clubs as there were athletes representing Carrick on Suir, Clonmel, Dualla Boherlahan Ballytarsna, Dundrum, Fethard, Mooreabbey Milers, Moyne, Moycarkey Coolcroo, Nenagh Olympic and Thurles Crokes, with many of them displaying their colours with their Club marquees.

It was great to see Dualla Boherlahan Ballytarsna well represented in both Novice races and their teams were making their Championship debut, brilliant to see a relatively young club making their mark at Senior level, congrats to all involved.

Women’s Race

The women’s race over four laps was well supported and midway through the first lap the pace was set by Aoife Delargy of Nenagh Olympic and Laura Cooney of Clonmel with the Fethard duo of Laura Earley and Edel Roche along with Mary Keane of Dundrum leading the chasing pack.

On the second lap, Laura Cooney upped the pace and soon went into the lead. She maintained this strong pace over the final two laps to come home a very convincing winner in 15 mins 40 secs. Laura was making a very successful transition from the juvenile to senior ranks and on this display, she can look forward to a good cross-country season.

Aoife Delargy maintained a strong pace to win the silver medal in 16 mins 8 secs, and having moved into third place midway through the first lap, Laura Earley maintained a strong pace to win her first senior medal when winning the bronze medal.

With both Clonmel and Fethard on eight points and with three to score on the Club team, all eyes were on the next athletes to emerged. Then Sarah Whelan of Clonmel came in to view with Paula Hendriksen of Fethard giving chase and closing. Sarah maintained her effort all the way to finish seventh with Paula next. This meant that Clonmel were crowned champions and achieving a three in a row, with Fethard winning the silver medals. The bronze medals were won by the Dundrum trio of Mary Keane, Emily Leahy 10th and Mairead Julien 14th.

Men’s race

The men’s race over six laps was also very well supported and the standard was very high. Right from the start the pace was set by the Nenagh Olympic duo of Luke Purcell and Daniel Ryan Ellis. These two athletes set a strong pace that soon had the rest of the field well strung out inside the first kilometre. The chasing pack included Barry Hartnett of Dundrum, Jamie Moloney of Nenagh Olympic and the Thurles Crokes trio of Willima Hughes, Thomas McCarthy and Cathal Kennedy.

Very little changed over the next four laps as the pace was strong throughout and it was hard to move up a place or two. Going out on the final lap, Ryan Ellis had moved well clear and made every stride a winning one as he came home a very worthy champion to win his first Senior County title impressively in 19 mins 47secs.

Luke Purcell captured the silver medal with Cathal Kennedy emerging from the chasing pack over the final two laps to win the bronze medal.

For the record Thomas McCarthy was 4th in 20 mins 32 secs with Barry Hartnett 5th in 20 mins 40 secs and William Hughes 6th in 20 mins 56 secs.

In the team event it was four to score and both Nenagh Olympic and their old rivals Thurles Crokes had three athletes’ home, so all eyes was on the fourth scorer. In this case it was Mark Corcoran of Nenagh Olympic running on strongly when finishing twelfth that saw them crowned champions and thus creating club history as they are the first Nenagh Olympic team to win this coveted title under Athletics Ireland.

Denis McCullough along with Cathal Kennedy, Thomas McCarthy and William Hughes won the silver medals for Thurles Crokes. It is great to see Thurles Crokes back on the podium after a lean few years, they won this title in 2018.

The bronze medals were won by the Clonmel quartet of Aidan Flannery 8th, Christy Aylward 9th, Cathal de Faoite 11th and Trevor Whelan 32nd.

Juvenile

Also took place on Sunday in Galbally with the even age races. It was great to see a large turnout in all age groups in the first races of the season with a wide variety of clubs being represented.

Poppy Shanahan (Moyne AC) won the U10 Girls with the club also taking team gold. Jack Ryan of Templemore AC struck gold in the U10 Boys while it was Nenagh Olympic AC who took the team title.

Carrick-on-Suir AC claimed gold in the U12 Girls through Orlaith Frisby with Moyne AC winning the team battle with a narrow two point win over Dundrum AC. Michael Hynes of Nenagh Olympic AC led home the U12 Boys race while Templemore AC stormed to team gold with four athletes inside the top ten finishers.

Neasa Moloney delighted the home club, Mooreabbey Milers AC, when she won the Girls U14 race and Dundrum AC won team gold. Dundrum AC’s Albert Maher claimed the victory in the Boys U14 while Thurles Crokes claimed the team title.

Newport AC were top of the podium in the U16 Girls race with Leah Berry taking top position while Clonmel claimed team victory in the same race. Darragh Boland (Clonmel AC) struck victory in the Boys U16 race.

Alana Spillane Moyne AC was first home in the U18 Girls race while it was Méabh Meegan Clonmel AC who took the honours in the Junior Ladies race. Kevin Finn (Nenagh Olympic AC) won both the U18 and Junior Men's title and it was also Nenagh who won both team titles on offer.

Attention now turns to the County Uneven Age County Championships next Sunday, October 13th in Moyne.

Intermediate Cross Country

All roads lead to Moyne next Sunday for the County Intermediate women 5k and Men’s 8K Cross Country Championships.

The women’s race will get underway at approx. 1.30pm. Eligibility for these Championships is that athletes have to be twenty years of age as of the 31st of December 2024.

Also, all athletes except previous individual winner of this or any higher championship. Any athlete from outside the Country of Ireland, who has not competed at senior level in Ireland, for at least one years is ineligible.

Following on from the County Novice races in Galbally we can expect two great races, and competition will be keen in both.