Pictures- Kilkenny’s golden girls and Mtinsi reign in Royal County

It was another successful Leinster cross-country championships for Kilkenny as 15 athletes earned individual medals and places on the Leinster team for the All-Irelands in Navan in December.

Four club teams were among the medals in Meath and qualified for the All-Irelands, while six county teams have also made it through to the nationals. The mucky Dunboyne venue was a stark contrast to the well-drained terrain the athletes had run on a fortnight earlier in Mountain View, Ballyhale. Conditions deteriorated as the day wore on – proper cross-country conditions, some might say.

The jewels in Kilkenny’s crown were the girls’ under-17 runners who had three athletes in the top 12, thus earning places on the Leinster team, along with St Senan’s, who won club gold and the county team also took gold.

The team was led by Eve Dunphy (St Senan’s) who finished third and almost caught Eimear Cooney (Louth) for the silver medal. In the boys’ under-15 race Kilkenny City Harriers (KCH) runner Kyrell Mtinsi took top honours as he strode away from Will Duff (Laois) over the final 150 metres to take the title with three seconds to spare.

Golden day

It was another golden day of cross-country running for Kilkenny’s under-17 contingent. Kilkenny had won the under-18 county title in Mountain View, the team consisting of mostly the same group of girls. In Ballyhale they had four girls inside the top 12 - at the weekend they had three, with two more just shy of that Leinster team.

Kilkenny were led home by Eve Dunphy (St Senan’s), who closed down the gap on Eimear Cooney (Louth) to just two seconds. Dunphy was third for the entire race, but in the last of the three laps she chased Cooney hard, gaining some 20 seconds in the process.

It was not an easy run as the mucky conditions made for a careful negotiation of the course - one lapse of concentration and you could lose your footing. With conditions for the nationals expected to be somewhat similar, this augurs well for Dunphy.

Her team-mate Abigail O’Regan has had a great season so far, in her first year running with St Senan’s. O’Regan had been lying around fifth and sixth for most of the race but lost out three places in the final lap to finish 10th. With some more weeks left to the nationals, she will continue to improve.

The race saw another good run by Pia Langton (KCH) who, as an 800m runner, may have found the muddy conditions less favourable. Langton chased down O’Regan over the final 600m to finish just one place ahead of the St Senan’s girl in ninth. The county team was backed up by Clodagh O’Callaghan in 14th place and Charlotte Carpendale in 18th, with Lily Ryan (St Joseph’s) the sixth scorer in 23rd place.

The county easily won the team title with 39 points to spare over Louth in second place while St Senan’s won the club title from Tullamore Harriers by six points. With Eva Bartlett still to race and Charlotte Carpendale just getting over an illness they have a lot more to give.

Kyrell Mtinsi (KCH) was never in danger of being beaten. Right from the start he looked comfortable as he held the lead along with Will Duffy (St Abbans). In the earlier laps Robert Downey (Portlaoise) was there too but the slippery and muddy conditions did not suit him and he dropped back after the first lap, eventually retiring from the competition.

This left both Mtinsi and Duffy strategising their individual stake on the gold medal. Mtinsi knew he had the speed advantage over Duffy and was happy to go with the pace and strike on the road to the finish. This is exactly what the young Kilkennyman did.

Just as the athletes emerged from the gap on the last lap, Mtinsi took off and was never in danger of being beaten. This was an upgrade in position for Mtinsi, who was second to Jack Mahon (St Laurence O’Toole) in 2022, and his first Leinster cross-country title.

In the same race St Senan’s took the silver club medals, as the team packed well with all four members making the county team. They were led home by Lewis Morgan, who finished 14th and was the second scorer on the county team that also finished second.

Just as they did in the under-14 race, it was Kildare who eclipsed the Kilkennymen for that county title. In 2022 in very similar conditions in Dundalk, Kilkenny beat Kildare by 18 points. Last weekend it was Kildare who beat Kilkenny by 15 points. The Kildare victory was helped enormously by them having five athletes in the top 12 to just one from Kilkenny. There will now be 10 Kilkenny runners in this age group at the All-Irelands in Navan on December 3.

Kelly takes bronze

The girls’ under-11 race saw three Kilkenny athletes claim individual medals and secure a place on the Leinster team. For many of these athletes, this was their first Leinster cross-country competition. Aged between nine and 10, it was a big occasion for most.

Kate Kelly (KCH) took the bronze medal as she raced hard down the home straight. “I am going to the All-Irelands,” she said as she examined her medal closely.

Also going to the All-Irelands are the Gowran pair of Orla O’Keeffe and Abigail Hunt as they finished sixth and eighth respectively. They will be joined by a Gowran club team and the Kilkenny county team as both teams secured silver medals.

It was a similar story in the boys’ under-11 race as Eoin Hoyne (KCH) and Tom Doherty (St Joseph’s) finished in the top 12.

Both will now go forward to the All-Ireland to represent Leinster.

Doherty did very well to finish eighth as he took a tumble earlier in the race and had to chase hard to make his way through the field. As Kilkenny finished third in the county section, Hoyne and Doherty along with eight other boys will represent Kilkenny.

Kilkenny City Harriers were second club, giving Daniel Hoyne his third medal of the day. The county contains a good mix of clubs as KCH, St Joseph’s, St Senan’s, Nuenna and Barrow Harriers all have athletes on the county team. For Kilkenny’s newest club, Nuenna, Joey Nolan will be their first ever athlete to qualify for an All-Ireland competition.

Individual honours

Four of the county’s under-13 athletes also secured places on Leinster teams. The top 12 in each race not only qualify for the All-Irelands individually, but they also get medals and will compete on the Leinster team.

Katie Byrne finished 17th in the 2022 Leinster championships in Dundalk when competing for Barrow Harriers. Now running for KCH she improved her position by several places to finish sixth. Emily O’Keeffe (Gowran) was another athlete to improve substantially. In Dundalk she finished 16th; this year she moved up the ranks to 10th, earning her place in the All-Irelands as part of the Leinster team.

In the boys’ under-13 race Aaron Carrigan (Gowran) and Finn Kavanagh (St Senan’s) finished ninth and 10th respectively and advanced to the All-Irelands. There was good news too for eight other Kilkenny athletes as the county finished fourth and qualified.

The girls’ under-15 runners were once again led home by Sinead Cormack (KCH) whose light frame comfortably navigated the ever increasing mud. Cormack has been consistently in the top 12 in and out of her age group for the past few years. As an under-14 athlete, finishing fifth was an excellent race and her racing form has improved substantially over the past two weeks.

The race was won by Emma Hickey of United Striders (Wexford) who also won the under-16 race a fortnight ago. The county finished third with athletes from KCH, Gowran, St Joseph’s, Thomastown and St Senan’s making the county team. Sinead’s twin sister Ellen was a scorer on the team and had one of her best races this year.

Contrasting fortunes

While the girls’ under-17 athletes excel at all levels, there is a considerable lack of boys in the county at the under-17 age group. Just four boys took part, three from Gowran and one from St Senan’s. With six required to score for a county team, there was no county team in place. The county championships also had a distinct lack of competitors in this age group.

The lack of Kilkenny competitors seemed to hold true for the remainder of the older age groups. Where once the current girls’ under-19 athletes would have won county medals on the national stage, they now cannot even field a team of four. Caoimhe Phelan (St Senan’s) and Emma Lalor (Castlecomer) finished 13th and 19th respectively.

One of the biggest disappointments of the day for the county was in the boys’ under-19 category where, of a team of 10 that was entered, only three athletes raced. The trio performed very well with Gearoid Long finishing seventh. For the Thomastown pair of Michael O’Shea and Tadgh Ryan, who both also had good races but didn’t earn individual medals, which means they will not qualify for the All-Irelands.

’Comer seniors

Two athletes from Castlecomer competed in the Senior Leinsters - Lauren Dermody in the women’s and James Kelly in the men’s. Dermody finished seventh and Kelly eighth in their respective races.

The pace set by the eventual winner Claire Fagan (Mullingar) was too fast for Dermody, who dropped off the pace midway into the race. The ’Comer runner battled both rain and the worsening underfoot conditions to maintain her seventh position for the remainder of the race.

While the Leinsters have changed from 5k to 6k, the nationals will now move from 8k to 9k in line with the new European distance changes. This may prove to be a challenge for attracting female athletes beyond county level. Senior women’s cross-country distances have increased from 4km (intercounty) and 5km (interclub) back in the 1980s and early 1990s to varying distances over the last 30 years.

The 8km distance has already been a stumbling block for many, especially for those transitioning from under-20 to under-23. In Ireland the national under-23s are held with the senior race, meaning many athletes of this age are used to competing at 6km on the college circuit.

While there are athletes advancing to the more senior ranks, the numbers competing outside of Dublin and Cork are rapidly declining. The overall numbers in races have also been on the decline since the heydays of the early 1990s. The athletics fraternity is looking on with interest to what the new changes will bring.

In contrast for the men, the distances have dropped from 10km to 9km, a drop which had zero impact on the numbers competing in Leinster. Mullingar dominated the team competition with Westmeath, as a result, taking the county title too.

With very little grass to grip onto after 11 previous races, the men faced no option but to run through the worst part of the course. Heavy rain in the latter half of the race did nothing to alleviate the spirits of the athletes.

Vinny Connolly (Mullingar) finished first with Kevin Moore (Mullingar) second while the 2022 national marathon champion Martin Hoare (Celbridge) was third. James Kelly (Castlecomer) was eighth. Mullingar had 10 athletes competing in the senior race, a phenomenal turn out.