Most clubs use road races as their annual fundraiser. It’s easy to see why – they are easy to organise and potentially get big support. Castlegar are a little unique in that they have made it their mission to make the discipline of Cross Country accessible to all, bringing some glamour and fun to the event with a great family day out. The Castlegar festival of Cross Country is proving a big draw and many happy families had a great day as the season kicked off.

Craughwell AC Athletes were to the fore in most races and after the points were totted up came away with the Inaugral Conor Slevin Shield for best club on the day. The shield is a great tribute from Castlegar AC to his memory and we are proud to be associated with it – the tragic tale is told below from their website:

“Conor and his family ran with Castlegar AC in the early years of the club from 1975 to 1977. In June 1977 we had a bus full of athletes and parents traveling to the All Ireland Track and Field which was held that year in the University of Limerick and what started out as a promising day out for our young club and athletes ended in tragedy when at the age of 10 Conor lost his life when hit by a bus in the car park after the event. Like many of you with your own children that will attend Saturday Conor’s parents and siblings were all there that day. Some more of us also ran in the Relay finals with him.“

In the high-standard Senior Men’s race, Piotr Prokop came a solid 29th and Mark Finnegan came 32nd.

Luke O’Sullivan won the u17 boys 4000m with a superb 14:43 ahead of Liam O’Connell in 3rd (1st u18). Katie Hoare had a brilliant run to come 27th overall in the large field.

Claudia Coyle Led the way home with victory in the U15 Girls, finishing 3rd overall in her 2500m race. Stephen Ruane (4th), Stephen Joyce (5th), Alan Hallinan (7th) and Oisin O’Donovan (15th) had fine runs in the combined u14, u15 and u16s race.

Grace Drysdale ran a solid 27th in the U13 girls 1500m race, while Donal Coyle was 5th in the boys race.

Muireann Kelly won Silver in the u11 girls race in a great battle all the way to the end. Emma McGovern was 8th, Aoife O’Connell (17th) and Olivia Gorman (35th).

In the U11 boys Conor Mannion came 2nd ahead of Jack Hibbitt (3rd), Aaron Commins (9th) and Matthew Drysdale (17th).

Ciara Ward was a brilliant winner of the u10 1000m with Olivia Rooney (17t) and Freya Wholihan (20th). There were great results too from Emma Mannion in the u9 (3rd). Adam Prokop came 31st in the u10 race.