Oisin Doyle and Grainne McDaid rediscover top form

Oisin Doyle and Grainne McDaid rediscover top form

Oisin Doyle and Grainne McDaid both made a fantastic return to top form this week in the Connacht Schools Cross Country finals which were held in Sligo on Wednesday.

Grainne placed 3rd in the Junior Girls 2500m to help the Pres Athenry to retain their Connacht team title. This was Grainne’s best race in possibly 3 years and fantastic to see her getting back to where she belongs – at the top! Likewise Oisin Doyle had a fantastic race after a quiet year in 2012. Oisin took 4th place overall in the Junior Boys 3500m and led the all-Craughwell Calasantius Oranmore team to the Connacht title with Liam Moran 6th, James Cahalane 9th, Matthew Barrett 26th , James Delaney 39th. Dearbhaile Walsh continued her return to action after autumn injuries with a strong 8th place finish in the Minor Girls 2000m with Aoife Greene also having a great race when placing 11th, Ben Sharkey placing around 7th and Brian Loughnane around 20th in the Minor Boys 2500m. Ciara Greene put in her customary top-notch performance to take 3rd place in the Intermediate Girls 3500m.

800m specialists Nicholas Sheehan and Damien O’Boyle placed 4th and 7th in the Intermediate Boys 5000m race to take yet another team title for Calasantius Oranmore with Matthew Moran 11th and John Cormican 12th. Matthew put in a Trojan effort despite struggling with illness and had to receive medical attention after the race. Given that the rest of the team are all 800m runners, it was a super achievement to land the Connacht title without Matthew in full form and without the injured Jamie Fallon-Spellman.

Conor Gillen wrapped up a good day’s action with a 4th place finish in the Senior 6500m race.

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