Mar 27, 2011 [Noel Guiden] Once again there was a great turn out of young Clonliffe athletes for the final round in the Juvenile Spring Series this morning. Today`s round was superbly organised by our hosts Skerries AC. There was a 500m lap marked out in the hard sand on the sea front on Skerries beach, a beautiful Spring morning, wonderful scenery, teas, coffees, sandwitches, the lot.
The young athletes had a ball, with keen racing on a beach with a nice pool of water left by the receding tide to run through…all that was missing was the Chariots of Fire theme music.
There were maybe the best part of 50 Clonliffe athletes taking part. As always there were excellent efforts by these youngsters. Things got off to a winning start as Ellen Brown won the U/10 girls 600m race with Zoe Lonergan 2nd. Cormac Breen was also excellent in the boys U/10 race as he battled away to a great 2nd place.
Once again Ruth Bergin was the class of the field in the girls U/12 800m race timing her effort to perfection as she cruised to victory with Lola O`Lideadha 3rd. In the boys another Clonliffe 1st and 3rd with Keelan Twomey taking the win and David Tuite 3rd, great runs also from David P. , Thomas and Ben.
The U/14 girls squad were out in force Amy McGrath having a great race and also picking up a golden ticket to take a lovely spot prize, good runs also by Tara, Sophie and Leah. In the U/14 boys race yet again Paddy O`Hanlon lead the way with a relaxed excellent win in the 1,000m race. A very good run also by Joseph Hession in 2nd place and Luke Guy 4th, well done also to Kevin, Dean, Owen and Daniel.
The U/16s were running 1500m. Star of this race was without a doubt Laura Tuite running her best race to date. Both Laura and Sally Aherne got themselves up with the leaders who are older and more expierenced and not only hung in but looked comfortable. Laura in particular challenged her club mate Rachel Murray over the last lap and although Racel was the stronger in 3rd place Laura was only a matter of inches away in 4th. Sally finished well in 5th, with Kate Hession also showing well in this race. Our final athlete in action was Carl in the boys U/16 who continues to show great promise as he finished in 6th place.
To finish the morning off there were two mass mixed relays with teams of 10 (I think!) both of which were great fun as the kids screamed encouragement to their teram mates, incidently Clonliffe won both the younger and older races.
Official Results:
U/10 Girls:
1. Ella Brown (Clonliffe)
2. Zoe Lonergan (Clonliffe)
3 Lottie Simons (Skerries)
U/10 Boys:
1. Naoise Gilmore (Skerries)
2. Cormac Breen (Clonliffe)
3. Jon Fanning (Skerries)
U/12 Girls:
1 Ruth Bergin (Clonliffe)
2 Sarah Whelan (Skerries)
3 Lola O’Lideadha (Clonliffe)
U/12 Boys:
1 Keelen Toomey (Clonliffe)
2 Callum McDonell (Skerries)
3 David Tuite (Clonliffe)
U/14 Girls:
1 Eryn Devine (Skerries)
2 Rhona Pierce (Skerries)
3 Aoimhe Downey (Skerries)
U/14 Boys:
1 Paddy O’Hanlon (Clonliffe)
2 Joseph Hession (Clonliffe)
3 Liam Cummins (Lusk)
U/16 Girls
1 Aimee Carron (Skerries)
2 Laura Costello (Skerries)
3 Rachel Murray (Clonliffe)
U/16 Boys:
1 Dylan Kirwan (Raheny)
2 Daniel Kelly (Skerries)
3 Darren Ryan (Lusk)
So the end of what has been an extreamly successful series with Skerries AC, Lusk AC and Raheny Shamrocks, it was great fun for all the athletes involved and we look forward to more of the same in the future. Finally a huge THANK YOU to Joanne Carron and the crew from Skerries AC for today…10 out of 10! (Despite the missing seal!)