Moyglass was the venue last Sunday for the County Intermediate Women’s and Men’s Cross-Country Championships where conditions were very good for running cross country on a summer’s day. In the Women’s race Ann Marie Boland ran the proverbial blinder. She went with the early pace and soon she was sharing the lead with the eventual winner, Angela Fogarty of Moyne AC. These two athletes were still together at halfway and it was only in the closing stages that Angela edged in front, but Ann Marie kept the pace going to win the Silver medal, brilliant performance. This performance by Ann Marie inspired the rest of the team with both Mercedes Conjero Martinez and Michelle Doherty running two great races as they emerged from the chasing pack and finished very strongly with Mercedes winning the bronze medal and Michelle hot on her heels in 4th place. The combined efforts of Ann Marie, Mercedes and Michelle saw them win the County Intermediate Women’s Inter Club title very convincingly and regain the Cup that was last won by the Club in 2013 when the winning team then consisted of Aine Roche, Catherine Rice and Johanna Lacy. Great performances all round.
The Men’s race was also competitive and again it was brilliant to see twelve members competing. Joey Feery once again put in a brilliant run. Going out with the early pace he soon found himself in the chasing pack of four and over the five laps he was well positioned. He maintained that strong pace all the way to finish 6th and this inspired the rest of the club members, none more so than Conor Ryan who was only having his 2nd ever Cross-Country race. He learned a lot form his run in the County Novice last Sunday and so he paced himself very well in the Intermediate, where he used his strength over the closing laps to move up through the field to finish a brilliant 8th. Then we had Dermot Logue also running very well when finishing 11th and a major improvement on his Novice performance. Another athlete who showed great improvement from his Novice run was Paudie O Keeffe. It is great to see Paudie back running well again after a lengthy lay off. On Sunday last he got into his stride early and as the race unfolded he made great progress through the field and put in a great effort over the final stages to finish 21st and in the process along with Joey, Conor and Dermot won the Inter Club Silver medals for the Club, brilliant. The last time we managed to win Silver medals in this event was in 2012, long overdue. We also had very good performances from Lar Martin 25th, Vasiliy Neumerzhitskiy 28th, great to have Vasiliy running Cross Country again, Donal Ryan great run finishing 37th, getting to like the grass, James O Brian 38th, Niall O Ceallaigh 41st, John Laste 42nd, Neil Proven 44th and Donie Casey 45th.
