LEINSTERS XC Juvenile Relays and Intermediate/Master Championships

14 Jan 2018

Dunboyne

Three juvenile xc teams donned their long spikes and red singlets and headed to the Leinster Club XC Relay Championships in Dunboyne – and all three medalled with the club winning two golds and one bronze.

First up were the boys u12 team (Liam O’Dwyer, Darragh Dunne, Aaron Doyle, Ruairi Murphy) with Tom Kehoe as sub and mentor. Liam led off and ran really well for a sprint specialist, with the other teams loading their first leg, he did well to hand over to Darragh in 7th, about 15 mt off the lead. Darragh moved quickly through the field to take 2nd place as gaps started to appear, then Aaron consolidated 2nd place, opening the gap on 3rd but still 20m behind Ratoath AC who the announcer said looked home and dry – but Ruairi Murphy ran an amazing leg to overcame the deficit moving into first with 50m to go and holding it from there. There were scenes!!!

The club doubled up on gold in the girls u14 which is a 4 x 500m (Sarah Kehoe, Maria Connolly, Rachel O’Neill, Ashling Fitzpatrick, and Ellie Murray), as with the boys, the opening leg was super fast and sarah ran wisely, finishing strongly to hand over to Maria Connolly in 3rd, Maria ran the race of her life to move from 4th to 1st, handing the lead to Rachel O’Neill, Rachel is a natural XC runner and her long strides ate up the ground and she pulled a 20mish lead on the team behind before handing over to Ashling Fitzpatrick, who showed great strength and speed to hold the lead under pressure and cross the line into the arms of her team mates!

Last out was the girls u16 team of Hannah Kehoe, Leah Bracken, Eve O’Dwyer, Elizabeth Malley with Robyn Denieffe and Anna Connolly coaching, photographing and managing social media. U16 XC is serious stuff and it was a super competitive race that was dominated by Thomastown AC. Hannah Kehoe led off for Gowran and ran superbly to hand over to Leah Bracken making her club debut. Leah ran brilliantly and just started to tie up a little with about 50m to go as the lactic acid hit – Eve took the baton and held off attacks from St. Josephs and Dunboyne before opening up some more ground passing a 15m lead to Elizabeth who, like Ashling before, showed great comittment and strength by running her best race to finish a few metres ahead of the dunboyne team in a thrilling finish to clinch bronze

To cap the day off Catriona Corr was 3rd scorer on Kilkenny Masters women’s team that won bronze medals, with Michelle Ryan and Siobhan O’Dwyer also running strongly despite possibly being in training for a long race in April – also great performances by masters men Derek Kehoe Simon O’Dwyer, Tom Corrigan, David Farrell and Pat Lennon big congratulations to all.

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Juvenile XC Relays
U12 Boys GOLD
Aaron Doyle
Liam O’Dwyer
Darragh Dunne
Ruairi Murphy
Tom Kehoe

U14 Girls GOLD
Sarah Kehoe
Maria Connolly
Aisling Fitzpatrick
Rachel O’Neill
Ellie Murray

U16 Girls BRONZE
Hannah Kehoe
Eve O’Dwyer
Leah Bracken
Elizabeth Maley
Robyn Denieffe
Anna Connolly