Well done, yet again, to the Striders Juveniles who were all fantastic at the county cross country relay event, at Lingstown, Kilmore. Fielding a very impressive ten teams, hopes were high of some good team performances and perhaps even some of the new-look county medals. The BU10 teams started the day off on a real high, with Sam Dowling, Adam Burke, Niall Barry, Conall Delaney, Donagh Grennan, Fionn MacEochaidh, Darragh Mackey and TJ Murphy finishing 2nd an 4th. The BU12 team also finished 2nd, with Eanna Grennan leading off and Dylan Galvin, Cormac Delaney and Eoin Stephenson bringing home the baton in style. The GU12 team were so unlucky to finish just outside the medals. All girls. Heather Costello, Ava Kehoe, Ailbhe Mackey and Maeve Burke ran right up to their best and finished 4th, in a hotly contested race.
Our remaining six teams all scooped medals of one sort or another. Our BU14 squad are really coming on in leaps and bounds. Well done to Tommaso Hickey, Jim Malone, Sean Lennon, Sam Myers, Luca O’Connor, Olan Delaney, Charlie Alfred and Ronan Shannon, who made up two teams, finishing 1st and 2nd. Our GU16 team won a really well deserved medal, with Hazel Hickey, Isabel Bawden, Aisling Ryan and Aoife Lyng all running really well over the testing 4 x 500m course, to finish 3rd. The final juvenile race of the day, was an all Strider affair and proved to be the most exciting finish of the day. With three Strider BU16 teams battling each other, for the medals, there was a real sense that these lads did not want to be beaten by their own club mates. In the first three legs, Robert Wall, Ben Myers, Aidan Kehoe, Finn Kelly, Aidan Shannon, Eoin Shannon, Caolan Costello, Oisin MacEochaidh and Cosmo Hewlett all ran really well and set things up perfectly for a nail biting finish. In the end it was Ben Wall who edged out Darragh Flannelly and Myles Hewlett and secured bragging rights for his team.
Thanks so much to all the athletes and parents who made the journey to Kilmore today. Being a relay event, we had fingers crossed that all would turn up and we really appreciate the efforts of all. Apologies to those athletes who were available to run, but we were unable to make teams for. It’s a coaches nightmare to tell kids that they can’t run – thanks so much to the very understanding parents. There are lots of upcoming events where we will need all our fantastic athletes.
