Ben Ryan has had a fantastic season so far and is going from strength to strength. A little background history over the past 6 months resulting in this amazing achievement of making an International Team. 

Ben started his Cross Country Season with a superb run in the Connacht X Country championships held in Sligo in November where he came in at 4th position. This qualified him for the Cross Country All Ireland Championships held later in the month in Abbottstown. Charging down the hill to get a good lead with the front runners, Ben held his strong position throughout the race and with only 300m to go, managed to take over a some of the leaders to storm to the finish in 16th place. This is a real achievement for cross country at this high all ireland level where some of Ireland’s greatest distance athletes meet for the coveted positions. 

Following the All Ireland’s Ben jetted off to New Zealand during his transition year to spend time with his Uncle and family. Taking full advantage of the mild climate he came back from NZ on fire!!! His newly improved running style coupled with his increased speed had him raring to take on the indoor track season. Unfortunately he was only home a number of days, when out for one of his many long cycles, took a bad tumble from his bike. This left Ben unable to train for a good period of time. 

It wasn’t long before Ben was up and running (literally) where last week he