Pictures- Irish eyes switch focus to Gowran for National Cross-Country races

While volunteers in Gowran were busy preparing the course in advance of this weekend’s All-Ireland even age and senior championships, the athletics activity was centred on university level as the Irish University Road Relays were held in Maynooth. Further afield, two Kilkenny athletes competed in the Regional Championships in the USA.

Jackman is tops for Trinity

Sophie Jackman has started to show signs that her winter training programme is paying off. Her recent fifth place in the Leinster Novice at Mountain View, along with her first senior county cross-country medal, have been glimpses of the form she is in. She continued that form when impressing for Trinity College at the IUAA Road Relays in Maynooth on Friday.

Tasked with taking the team out on the 1,800m first leg, Jackman knew Trinity had a lot of work to do to keep up with the big guns of UCD and DCU. From the gun it was Faye Dervan (DCU) who took the lead with the UCD pair of Susie Nestor and Renee Crotty and Jackman just behind. At the 800m mark Crotty dropped behind, leaving Jackman and Nestor to battle each other.

With 400m to go, Dervan had a 20 metre lead. Nestor took the bend wide and Jackman seized her opportunity, tucked tightly into the gap created on the inside and moved ahead of the UCD athlete.

Finding herself in the position of being able to chase down Dervan, who had the lead for DCU, Jackman produced a fast final 100m to take Dervan 20 metres before the line. She handed the baton in first place to Celine Gavin. Trinity were two seconds ahead of DCU with UCD B a further four seconds behind.

Jackman’s time was the second fastest ever recorded for a first leg, in the history of the IUAA relays being held in Maynooth. The Trinity team ultimately finished third.

Competing for DCU Cathal O’Reilly and his team-mates had a lot of pressure when going up against one of UCDS’s best ever teams. UCD delivered a first from leg one. Taking the baton for DCU was Sean McGinley. Despite being five seconds adrift, McGinley fought hard and recouped the deficit on the first lap. What ensued thereafter was a ding-dong battle between McGinley and UCD’s Jonas Stafford. When McGinley handed the baton to Daniel Stone with a one second lead he had to contend with the great Darragh McIlhenny, who finished second in the European Cross-Country back in 2021. By the time Stone passed the baton to O’Reilly, DCU were 28 seconds behind UCD.

What transpired after that baton change shocked UCD. With Cian McPhillips on their leg they expected to increase their lead a little more. Instead O’Reilly ran the race of his life, chasing McPhillips hard to record a time of 9.28 for the two-mile leg – the fastest of the day by one second. While the title did eventually go to UCD with DCU in second, O’Reilly can go into this weekend’s national under-23 championships confident that his form is in a good place.

There were three other local athletes in action. Gearoid Long ran the two-mile leg for UCC, taking their team to eighth place. Competing for SETU, Cillian Dunne took the first leg and handed the baton to his teammate Niall Harvey in 15th place. SETU finished 24th overall. Eleanor Goddin also competed.

Regional Championships

Two Kilkenny athletes were in action at the West Regional Championships in Sacramento, California last weekend - Meabh Richardson, who was competing for Portland, and Hannah Kehoe, competing for the University of San Francisco. Both athletes had raced the conference at Malibu two weeks ago, qualifying with their teams for this next stage. Richardson came into the regionals off some strong races; her ninth place finish in Malibu displaying her continued progression this season. Kehoe had finished 49th in Malibu and was looking to improve her performance at the regionals.

With all the regional championships being staged across the country, the race was on to see which teams would make the final cut for the NCAA championships on November 18. Richardson ran the first part of the 6km race conservatively. After the first lap she was in 75th position out of 253 runners competing. Moving up to 73rd after the second lap she pushed the pace, going from 62nd after lap three to 55th after the fourth lap. A strong final lap saw Meabh gain one further place to finish 54th in a time of 20.38. She was fourth scorer on the Portland University team that finished sixth. Favourites Stanford were the winners.

Like Richardson, Hannah Kehoe started conservatively. Moving from 154th to 147th after two laps, excellent third and fourth laps saw Kehoe move into 124th place. However, this effort had taken its toll and although she put in a stellar final lap, she finished in 145th place, the seventh scorer for the University of San Francisco. This was a much-improved race for Kehoe as she recorded a time of 21.50. The West regional is very competitive with athletes like Anika Thompson finishing 12th and Sophie O’Sullivan 17th.

Both Richardson and Kehoe will be back in Ireland to compete for a place on the Irish team for the European Cross Country. They will both compete in the junior race this weekend.

Gowran All-Irelands

It will be a busy weekend for Gowran AC who will host the All-Ireland juvenile even ages, junior and senior championships on Sunday. Held beside Gowran Park, the course has already been built with the assistance of a team of club volunteers. The county has a considerable number of athletes who will be taking part, representing Leinster, Kilkenny and clubs. With the first 12 from the Leinster Championships, which were held at Mountain View last month, making the Leinster team the county has 15 athletes representing Leinster.

In the girls’ under-12 race four Kilkenny athletes made the Leinster team - Kate Kelly (Kilkenny City Harriers, KCH), Abigail Hunt (Gowran), Orla O’Keeffe (Gowran) and Ava Hogan (St Senan’s). Kate Kelly will be looking to improve upon her 36th position from 2022 in Cork, where she was the first Kilkenny athlete across the line.

Kelly will lead her clubmates Ella O’Flaherty, Eva Arslan and Mella Crowley in the hunt for medals. Kilkenny finished first county in the Leinster Championships and will seek to be amongst the first three counties.

The boys’ under-12 team will be led by the Leinster champion Daniel Green (KCH). In 2022 Green finished in seventh place and led the Kilkenny team into seventh place - he will seek another top 12 finish.

Also making the Leinster team is Tom Doherty (St Joseph’s) who has improved substantially this year. Both boys will be accompanied by a Kilkenny team, consisting of eight other boys from across the county.

The Renton twins, Freya and Holly, of Westport have dominated their age group since they were under-11. Although athletes such as Nellie Bateman (Belgooley) have now challenged them, they will still be among the favourites to take the girls’ under-14 title. Sinead Cormack finished 18th in the race last year and will be looking to get an entry into the top 12.

Cormack finished fifth in the Leinster championships in Mountain View and will compete as part of the Leinster team. Joining her will be Katie Byrne (KCH) who will be seeking to improve upon her 65th place from Cork last year. KCH won the club title in Leinster and will look to be in the medal hunt. The county team has also qualified, giving Kilkenny a large representation in this race.

The boys’ under-14 race was a battle between Kilkenny and Kildare for the past few years. Kildare won the county title in Leinster this year but can Kilkenny avenge this defeat? Zak Fenton (St Senan’s) made the top 12 in Cork last year. However, his teammate Lewis Morgan has been pushing the boundaries this season and leading the St Senan’s men home. Fenton and Lewis are both on the Leinster team.

Gowran AC, led by Aaron Carrigan, qualified for the All-Ireland as did the county team. If Fenton, Morgan, Carrigan and Finn Kavanagh (St Senan’s) can pack tightly, this might allow the county to get into the medal hunt.

Clodagh O’Callaghan is on the Leinster under-16 team and will be supported by a county team who finished third in Leinster. O’Callaghan finished 29th in Cork last year. She has been running even better this year and will want to make the top 12.

Last year’s race produced a turn for the books as Freya Bateman (Belgooley) caused a huge upset by beating champion Emily Bolton. Running well this year is Emma Hickey (United Striders). Can there be another upset in the pecking order?

Accompanying Clodagh will be a Kilkenny team.

Kyrell Mtinsi will be going it alone in the boys’ under-16 race. Mtinsi will be on the Leinster team but will be the sole Kilkenny representative in the race. Having finished 18th in 2022, he will be seeking a top 12 position in Gowran.

Irish Team selection

The junior and under-18 races are run together and Kilkenny will be in the hunt for county medals in both races. The girls’ under-18 county team won the Leinster Championships with four girls making the Leinster team, one of the strongest teams in the county.

Eve Dunphy (St Senan’s) is in fantastic form with her clubmates Abigail O’Regan and Charlotte Carpendale also making the Leinster team. The fourth Kilkenny woman on that Leinster team is Pia Langton (KCH) who has emerged as a strong addition to cross-country running this season. Eve Dunphy and Eva Bartlett (both St Senan’s) will be seeking top 12 placings. For St Senan’s, who won the club title in Leinster, their strongest runner Eva Bartlett has been entered as an individual rather than on the Senan’s team itself.

The under-18 and junior race will also see the selection for the Irish Junior Euro Cross team along with the Celtic International. The county junior team should benefit from the arrival back from the USA of Hannah Kehoe and Meave Richardson. With a good run from Pia Langton and the other team members, this should propel KCH as strong contenders for club medals. With the top two clubs qualifying for the European Club championships in Portugal in February, this will be an interesting motivation for KCH.

The boys’ under-18 and junior race will also see a strong Kilkenny team taking part. Like the girls’ race there will be positions on the Irish team for the European Cross Country and Celtic International up for grabs. Billy Coogan has been going well all season as has David Williams. Coogan should be in line to take a place on that Euro Cross team but Williams, who has been out of action for the past few weeks, has yet to confirm his fitness to run.

If Williams is deemed fit to run the county team could win the junior title. There will be good backing from Gearoid Long (St Senan’s), the Thomastown pair of Michael O’Shea and Tadgh Ryan along with the KCH pair of Ruairi McEvoy and Myles Hewlett. Calum Byrne (Barrow Harriers) will run well in the under-18 race, a possible top 12 finisher. KCH have entered a club team, though Lagan Valley and Nenagh AC will be the favourites for the top two spots and European club qualification.

Cathal O’Reilly made the Irish team for the European junior cross-country in 2021. Held in Dublin, O’Reilly was part of a medal-winning team. While Donegal did not go as planned in 2022, O’Reilly is in superb form at the moment and looks like he may be a strong contender for a place on the under-23 team. The under-23 and senior championships will be run together, with Cathal teaming up with his KCH clubmates in a bid for medals. The county has over 15 runners in this race.

There is also a women’s county team entered with a return to racing for Ruth Kennedy (Gowran), back after a hiatus from racing last year. Lauren Dermody will once again race the seniors.