Craughwell AC’s Oisin Davis (6th), Sean Cotter (Connacht Champion) and Liam Leen (5th)
at the Connacht U15 Cross Country Championships in Longford

Several athletes from the club made the long journey to Moyne Community School in Co. Longford today for day 2 of the Connacht cross country. Well done to Longford AC and Paddy McPhillips for having the course in excellent condition bar two boggy patches on the way around. The Moyne course was the scene of one of the club’s proudest moments back in 2013 when 4 teams from local primary schools featured in the team medals and Rebekah Flynn strode to individual gold in the 4th class race. So we like it up here … if only they could move it a bit closer to Craughwell ?.

The U11 Girls 1500m race was off first at noon sharp where Craughwell AC had a mostly U10 team in action. Claudia McGuinness led the team home in 34th place and was followed swiftly by Amelie Bocquet 38th, Kathlyn Walsh 44th, Caoilin Corban 48th and Lillian Walsh 52nd – super performances considering Amelie, Katelyn, Caoilin and Lillian are all out of age. The team placed 5th with 164 points. Next up, the U11 Boys 1500m got away with Darragh Reidy having an outstanding run to place 15th overall and lead Craughwell AC to team bronze with Fionn Higgins 19th, Keelan Moorhead 35th, Sean Lavan 44th and Darragh Kelly 47th. The team took the bronze with 113 points

Craughwell AC’s U13 Girls – silver medalists
at the Connacht Cross Country Championships in Longford

Next the U13 Girls 2500m got underway with Aoibhe Carr establishing a fast pace early in the race, followed by Fauve Aylmer, Clodagh O’Meara, Jade Moorhead, Erin Kelly and Grace Leen. 2500m is a tough distance for this age but the girls rose to the challenge. Aoibhe got a stitch midway through the race but bravely battled on. Clodagh and Fauve started to move up through the field and had an outstanding second half of the race to take individual 4th and 5th places. Aoibhe was in next in 19th place, showing fantastic determination not to let the team down when having to run the second half of the race with a stitch and noticeably unwell for 30 minutes after the race. Jade had her strongest performance this season in cross country with a fine 27th place finish. Erin had a brilliant run to plae 49th as did Grace in 52nd, both girls showing great determination to finish out the race and complete a wonderful team performance by the girls which saw them take the team silver with 55 points. Additionally, Clodagh and Fauve scored for the Galway team which took home the gold medals in the county competition.

Craughwell AC’s U13 Boys – silver medalists
at the Connacht Cross Country Championships in Longford

The whistle went for the U13 Boys 2500m immediately the girls race concluded. Mathys Bocquet stepping up an age having taken Connacht silver last weekend in the U12s, again showed what a talented cross-country runner he is when taking up a place in the top 3 which gradually pulled away from the field through the race. As it came into the final 200m, it was only then that Mathys faded a little to take individual bronze – a marvellous performance out of age. Mathys was followed in by Evan Hallinan with his best run of the season to date to take 15th place. Hot on his heels Daniel Galvin also with his best run of the season took 18th place, while Cian Lavan put in a blistering finish to take 20th place. And in his first race for the club, Mark Kilgannon had a super run to take 35th place and was followed by our 6th man Killian Walsh battling hard in 45th place. Another super team performance which saw them clinch the team silver medals with a points total of 56, narrowly behind South Galway who took the Connacht title with 53 points.

In the U15 Girls 3500m, Aoibhinn Keane stepping up an age and put in a super run to finish 14th out of age while in the U15 Boys 3500m, Sean Cotter again demonstrated his extraordinary talent to take the Connacht title with an impressive run and was followed in by great runs by Liam Leen and Oisin Davis in 5th and 6th. A 4th scorer here would have guaranteed them the team gold but alas was not to be as Ross McGuinness had picked up an injury.

In the U17 Girls 3500m, Ciara Sheppard had an amazing run to take 7th place possibly Ciara’s best ever run in cross country but even more amazing considering she was out of age – getting stronger and stronger with every run. In the boys William Fitzgerald raced to individual bronze, an incredible performance considering that yesterday William raced to victory in the 5k in his home town of Peterswell. William was followed in by Kyle Moorhead with a fine run to take 8th place with Patrick Noonan hot on his heels in 9th place and Sean Noonan completing a fine team performance with 11th place and helping the team to the silver medals with 31 points. And Luke Evans rounded out the Craughwell performances with a fine individual silver medal in the U19 Boys race.

Full results are here: CONNAUGHT_UNEVEN_RESULTS_SUNDAY_5TH_NOV_MOYNE