Kilkenny athletes to the fore in cross-country at the Curragh

Leinster Senior and Uneven Age Juveniles

​Day 3 of Leinster saw athletes compete at the Curragh Racecourse that gave way to a challenging but enjoyable course, with plenty of sharp bends, undulating hills and plenty of horse manure to watch out for!!!

The u-9 were first off and although pre entry was required for bib numbers, the rush was on at the start to gather the large crowd of enthusiastic athletes together on time.

The race eventually got going, with a flashy medal and tasty bun the deserving reward presented by the hosting club Newbridge Ac.

By the time the u-11 championship races commenced the fog had lifted, and the sun was doing its best to break through to curtail the wintery feel in the air for those standing eagerly supporting from the barriers.

Races

The U11’s 1500m like all the races had the fast start slightly downhill, and with 164 athletes raring for a quick start it was inevitable there would be some fallers just after the gun.

Thankfully all were able to carry on with the race unscathed. Ava Ledingham (KCH) kicked off the start of the individual medals for the Kilkenny contingent, winning bronze on the day with a great finish for sixth place and to lead her club team home to third place.

The County team was just shy of qualifying having placed fifth overall. The Boys u-11 saw the dynamic duo of Diarmuid Maher and Cian Nolan (Castlecomer) earn Leinster bronze medals for their brilliant running finishing in 11th and 12th place respectively.

Castlecomer

The Castlecomer club team just missed out on a medal place but they did qualify for Nationals in two weeks. The County team finished 3rd overall with Liam Holohan (TT), Matthew Fennelly (TT), Oisin Fogarty (CC) and Conor McNamara (KCH) all picking up a bronze medal and heading for Nationals.

Cara Burke (KCH) placed 12th to claim a bronze in the Girls u-13 2500m and leading the County team home to a sixth place finish overall.

In the Boys u-13 1500m Luke Hanlon (TT) running up in age just narrowly missed out on a medal having finished in 13th place.

The top 20 finish for the first four boys home for Kilkenny Luke, Daniel McIntyre (KCH), Huw Morgan (SS) and Cian Shortall (G) helped the County team to fourth place, qualifying for Nationals in two weeks time also.

Abigail Hunt (Gowran) qualified in superb fashion sticking with the leading pack throughout the race and managed to close down two places on the last 200m to secure her second Leinster medal in two weeks in the Girls u-15 3500m taking 10th .

The great performances by all the girls on the County team was unfortunately just short of qualifying finishing in fifth place.

Daniel Greene was again in flying form in his u-15 age group winning comfortably ahead of Zian Soobaya Celbridge AC, who put up a great challenge throughout the race and right to the end, but never looked like passing Greene who strolled home in 00:11:10 for the win.

The Girls U17 saw Sinead Cormack once again on the podium in time in 5th place finishing the 4500m course in 00:17:29.

Katie Byrne also medalled in 9th place taking bronze with Amelia O’Brien and Ellen Cormack making up the Kilkenny City Harriers club team for the silver medal in 2nd place.

Nationals

The County team will also head to Nationals having qualified in 4th . It was gold and bronze in the Girls U19 5000m as Shannon and Eleanor Doheny (Kilkenny City Harriers) controlled the leading pack all throughout the race.

Shannon pulled away clear from Emma Hunt with over 500m to go to take the win in style in 00:18.06.

Callum Barron who won the National Novice in Abbottstown last year, was back in action taking on the Curragh racecourse in far better conditions that bestowed him the gold last year.

Barron had a great run over the course to finish the 9000m in a comfortable 00:29:59, a great race to set him up for the National Seniors in two weeks time.

Kilkenny City Harriers were the only team in the Seniors finishing in 4th overall while the County team was 5th just two points behind Kildare in 4th and seven points off the medals in the end.