A sizable contingent of athletes from the club took part in the rearranged Cumann na mBunscoil cross country last Wednesday and as has become the norm in recent years, featured very strongly across all four races in both the individual and team placings.

A very efficiently organised set of races passed off quickly on a beautiful day in Renmore. Compared with the atrocious pre-Christmas weather, the clear blue skies vindicated the organisers decision to postpone until a finer day.

The junior girls race was first to take to the Renmore pitches, where Grainne McDaid (Craughwell NS) settled into the leading group from early in the race and make a strong move with 150m remaining – taking the lead and racing home to a fine victory. She was followed home by Leanne Freaney (Craughwell NS) in 6th place and Dearbhaile Walsh (Labane NS) in 10th place. Michelle Duggan 17th, Emma Gaffney 19th and Amy Hynes 40th sealed a fine 2nd place finish for the Craughwell NS team. There was also a Killeeneen team in the race with Jennifer Sharkey from the club running well – and possibly some other club members but I need to check that out since the results only recorded the school names of most of the athletes.

In the Junior Boys race, Oisin Doyle (Oranmore Boys NS) had an outstanding race to move into a strong lead from the whistle and push strongly the entire way to the line for a fine victory. He was followed closely by teammates Eoin Rockall 3rd, James Cahalane 4th, Isi Richards 10th, Matthew Barrett 13th and Jim Crowley 19th for an unassailable victory in the team event by a large margin. Craughwell NS took 5th place in the team event, led home by Matthew Molloy in 9th place, Ronan Nevin 16th, Eoin Fahy, Jack Miskella and Alan Callanan. Again, I need to follow up on the details of the Killeeneen school team.

Craughwell NS were victorious in the Senior Girls race with a mighty show of strength that saw 4 girls finish in the top 9 to claim the team victory by a large margin – with Emma Byrne leading the team home in 4th place, followed by Ellen Fitzpatrick in 6th, Hannah Rabbitte 8th, Ashling Connolly 9th and Laura Gilligan 29h.

In the Senior Boys race, Damien O’Boyle (Killeeneen) had a fine performance to take individual silver, with Jamie Spelman (Oranmore) in 4th. The Craughwell team narrowly pipped Oranmore by 3 points to take 2nd place with their team led by Cillian McDaid in 8th, Ciaran Nevin 17th, Andrew Greaney 21st, Adam Flynn 25th, Eoin Lally and Conor Dolan.

Further details on the results are as follows: