Just before Hurricane Ophelia hit Ireland, the Striders Juveniles created quite a storm at last weekends cross country county championships, for the uneven age groups. The Murphy sisters, Anna and Laura, got us off to a great start in the first race of the day. The U11 girls team of Heather Costello, Moya Corbett and Katie Costello all did really well and came very close to winning a team medal. Isabel Bawden was first Strider home in the next age group, finishing ahead of Leona Berry, with both girls well up the field. Erinn Shannon’s bronze medal was the first medal of the day for the girls, with Eve Byrne and Clodagh Foran also running well in the U15 event, over 3.5 km. The Striders girls finished the day on a real high with the U17’s squad of Rebecca Bawden, Aisling Power, Grainne Flannelly and Joanne Kelly filling the first four positions.
Cormac Delaney was our sole BU9 in action and did really well over the uphill 500m course. Ronan Shannon’s brilliant second place finish also helped the Striders team, including Sam Myers, Olan Delaney and Charlie Alfred, to a team silver medal. The U13 race couldn’t really have gone any better for Striders. Myles Hewlett was very impressive finishing ahead of brother Cosmo and Eoin Shannon, as the Striders filled the first three places. Finn Kelly, Sean Lennon, Caolan Costello, Tomasso Hickey, Danny Costello and Conor Rossiter also did very well to ensure the Striders won both gold and bronze team medals. The U15 boys bagged another team gold. With Aidan Shannon and Adam O’Connor also winning silver and bronze individual medals, Owen Lennon and Oisin MacEochaidh secured the team win, with excellent efforts. With the distance up to 5 km, Ryan Kielthy did really well to win an individual bronze, despite being a year out of age. In the final juvenile event, Aedan Rogers won the U19 title, ahead of third placed James Boland, making Aedan a double county champion, following his win earlier this month at JFK Park. Well done to all the club juveniles who competed and made this another great day out.
