The final domestic cross country races of the year took place today in pleasant condition at Tramore Racecourse, Co Waterford with the national juvenile (uneven ages) cross country championships and the national novice cross country. The stunning views looking towards the beautiful beach set the scene for what was to be yet another extremely successful day for the Clonliffe Juveniles.
It wasn’t long until our U13 Boys were under starters orders, racing over 2500m. Seamus Phelan looked on form from the gun. He ran an excellent race and finished 23rd in his first National Cross Country Championship race. Sam Steenson was next man home in 34th following up on his performance at the Even Age Championships 2 weeks ago. Isaac O’Neill had a gutsy run finishing 47th with Daire Cronin putting in a huge effort to finished 98th. A very impressive run from Maximillan Schwarzbacher saw him come home in 113th, he seemed to just get faster as the race went on and looked impressively fresh as he came into the last 500m. This young team finished 6th overall, gained invaluable experience and did their club, coaches and training mates very proud.
The U17 Girls were next up for the club. Emily Bolton stuck in the lead pack in this 4500m race. She looked in control, confident and strong throughout and in her signature move, broke away from the group to dominate this race tearing away from any threat to the title, one she had taken as a U/16 last season, winning with some style. Goda Buivydyte finished in 28th on this tough course and battled through the field very well. Next home was Isla Duncan in 48th position, again, chipping away at the places to score for the team. Sophie Kernan running up an age finished 96th to secure super team Silver. Hannah Walsh finished 102nd with Rebecca Finn finishing 134th.
Next up for Clonliffe were the U19 Girls running 5000m, bizarrely 500m longer than the U/20 race of 2 weeks back! Lorraine O’Connor set out her stall very early on as she opened an unfillable gap, her strength on the hills in particular paying dividend. Lorraine powered home to victory taking the 2nd Clonliffe individual title of the day with a totally dominant display. Hazel Kenny is consistently showing fine form and is going from strength to strength. She finished 19th. Sorcha O’Connor also had an excellent run today and her 27th place finish secured the gold for the U19 women’s team. Mya O’Reilly finished 44th with Paige Elliot putting in a determined and brave performance in her only 2nd ever cross country race finishing 62nd.
The U19 Boys also ran over 5000m. A very impressive team performance from the lads, as always, secured a team title with 50 points a massive 78 points ahead of 2nd team DSD with Finn Valley finished 3rd with 190 points. Sean Cronin lead the boys home in 8th position, Matei Ursachi in 10th and Lorcan Benjacar in 12th. Tom Breslin was the 4th scorer in 20th. Harry Bogan came in in 24th with Leon Brady in 25th. The consistency of this team gives great confidence in the future of Mens Cross Country for the club as they also won gold in the Junior Championship two weeks previously. This team have consistently been on top all the way through from the U/16 ranks.
It was without a doubt one of the most successful days enjoyed by our juvenile athletes on the country.
The final race on the card was the men’s novice cross country championships. Once again this particular race attracted the biggest cross country field of the year with over 220 starters representing a quite extraordinary 29 teams. This was always going to be a big ask for the team as this year’s novice team is basically an entirely new team as the club won the national intermediate cross country in February thereby taking that entire team out of novice. Still the team battled away gamely, there were some very good positives in particular it was good to see both Ben Guiden, 47th and Darragh Carter 55th, back racing once again in a national cross country. These 2 along with Cillian Keegan and Cian Murray were the scoring 4 as the team finished 13th. Next in was Sean Doran, 95th, Ronan Donohue 118th, Ian McAweeney 136th and Dmytro Moyseyev, having his first taste of cross country ever, 149th.
That concluded cross country for 2024, however the season continues! On January 5 the Dublin intermediate and Dublin Masters cross country takes place in St Anne’s Park, Raheny and on February 9 the national intermediate and masters, way out West, in Westport. Rust never sleeps!