The county cross country was held in Newport last Sunday and although numbers were lower than in previous years Clonmel AC came home with a large number of medals. The two stand out performances of the day was that of Aoife Hennessey in the girls u10 who came home in convincing style and Muireann Duffy both of whom were crowned as county champions.
The first 10 athletes across the finishing line receive individual medals up to u14 and top 3 for the older age groups. Medals are also presented for teams of 4.
The first six athletes across the line will automatically represent Tipperary in the upcoming provincial championship also held in Tipperary in two weeks time.
First up were the boys u10 and here Fionn Aird continuing his good form came home in 5th place his teammates Ciaran Horgan and Seamus Meegan also ran well unfortunately we were one short to make up a team. In the girls u10 we had our first county champion with Aoife Hennessey winning in style having led from the start to finish a convincing winner. Again, here we only had Emma Fitzgerald who ran well to place 17th so were short a team. In the boys u12 we had a strong team that were used to competitive running and this shone through with the team taking the Gold team medals made up of Rory Hennessey 5th, Adam Prout 7th, Devin Ryan 8th, Harry Walsh 10th, Ben Fitzgerald 16th and Toby Hayes 35th. In the girls u12 we had 2 competitors that ran very well Caroline Smith placing 7th and Cara Ryan in 14th.
In the boys u14 we were one short for a team with 3 starters all of whom put in great performances with Darragh Boland 7th, Cian Fitzgerald 11th and Harry Weymouth 16th. All these lads had to run out of their age group. In the girls u14 our sole competitor Alice Meegan ran very well to place 17th. In the boys u16 a strong team of Cian Flaherty 4th Connor O Gorman 5th and Cathal O Gorman 7th took the Gold team medals. In the u16 girls Meabh Meegan put in a super performance to place just outside the medals in 4th position. In the girls u18 we had our second county champion with Muireann Duffy taking gold closely followed home by her clubmate Laura Cooney taking Silver.
In the final event of the juvenile races Conor Flaherty and Thomas Smith both ran brilliantly to place 4th and 8th respectively.
Clonmel would like to thank Newport for the organising of the event and the parents, coaches and team managers that helped out on the day. We had many first time athletes compete that performed exceptionally considering it was their maiden race.
Please contact the club if your child would like to compete next week. Cross country is a team event and we would like to be able to place a team in every race.