Wexford Juvenile Cross Country Championships, Even Ages, Davidstown, 07-Oct-2018

The cross country season started in earnest with Adamstown AC hosting a very well attended Wexford Even Age Cross Country Championships. The course featured one particular long incline, however the strong wind posed a real challenge for the younger athletes. The Striders had Sarah Lillis run an excellent race in the first event, over a testing 1km course. Cormac Delaney had a lovely top ten finish, in the BU10 event, leading home the team that also included Fionn McEochaidh and Gearoid Byrne. In the best attended race of the day, both Heather Costello and Ava Kehoe were out of age and ran really well to finish in the top half, over 2km. Over the same distance, Eoin Hannan showed great improvement to record his best ever finish, a strong finishing second place. With Ronan Shannon, Olan Delaney and Keelan Ryan all finishing in the top ten and Sam Myers also putting in a strong performance, the Striders won their first team gold medal of the day. In the U14 age group, Isabel Bawden and Hazel Hickey did really well, with the distance up to a testing 3km. The U14 boys dominated their event, led home by national 1,500m champion, Myles Hewlett, demonstrating that he’s equally effective on grass as he is on the track. The Striders had nine athletes in the top ten, with Cosmo Hewlett, Eoin Shannon, Finn Kelly, Sean Lennon, Ben Myers, Caolan Costello, Tomasso Hickey and Luca O’Connor making up the teams that won gold, silver and bronze, in a clean sweep of individual and team medals. Clodagh Foran was our sole representative in the GU16 event over 4km and was very strong in her first race of the season. More success followed in the boys event of the same age group, with Ben Wall, sprinting to success, despite being out of age. Adam O’Connor also picked up an individual medal and Robert Wall completed the gold medal winning team. The U18 Striders finished the day on a high, with all winning a medal of some kind. Rebecca Bawden and Grainne Flannelly finished second and third respectively in the girls event, with Aaron Browne and Cian Flanagan doing likewise in their event. Ryan Kielthy completed the BU18 gold medal winning  team to conclude a great day for the under age Striders.