Sean Cotter, Finbar McFadden and Kyle Moorhead
at the National U15 Cross Country Championships held at Dundalk IT

A belated report on last weekend’s cross country where a small band of athletes from the club made the journey to Dundalk for day 2 of the National Juvenile Cross Country Championships. Top finisher on the day from the club was Mathys Bocquet who took 28th place in the U11 Boys 1500m and led his team to 12th place overall with Evan Moran 90th, followed by Lucas Keane, Cormac McFadden, Adam Jordan and Liam O’Connell. Aibhle Miskella had an outstanding run to place 48th in the U15 Girls 3500m with Sarah Woods and Asia Clarke just outside the top 100. Sean Cotter and Kyle Moorhead placed 70th and 72nd in the U15 Boys 3500m with Finbar McFadden 98th while Ross McGuiness led his U13 team to 17th place when placing 62nd in the U13 Boys 2500m, followed by Eoin Byrne, Darragh McCartin, Noah Keane and Ben Brady all with fine runs against elite opposition.

As everyone knows the standard at this level is incredibly high and everyone in the race is a top class runner. You can look back over the history of our performances in National cross country in the attached file to see how difficult it is! The attached is not fully complete yet so if you spot omissions, let me know.

The top finisher this year in the girls races was Ailbhe Miskella with her 48th place finish in the U15 Girls 3500m – a class performance from one of the most dedicated athletes in the club who almost never misses a training session, and her best performance since 2013 when she placed 38th.

And in the boys races, Jamie Fallon’s 7th place finish in the Junior Men 6k, Ben Ryan’s 16th in the U16 Boys 4k and Sean Cotter and Mathys Bocquet 28th place finish in the U13 and U11 races were the leading performances for the club.

The following is a list of the athletes who have placed in the top 20 in National cross country from the club, an exclusive list indeed and a huge achievement:-

• 4 Linda Porter
• 6 Rachel Finnegan
• 7 Ashley McDonnell
• 14 Grainne McDaid
• 16 Sarah Helebert
• 17 Dearbhaile Walsh
• 19 Aoibhe Carr

• 3 Jamie Fallon
• 5 Conor Gillen
• 7 Oisin Lyons
• 10 Nicholas Sheehan
• 11 Damian O’Boyle
• 11 James Cahalane
• 13 David Concannon
• 13 Neil Greaney
• 13 Adam Stewart
• 14 Matthew Barrett
• 15 Micheál Hannon
• 15 Liam Moran
• 18 Paul Joyce
• 19 Finn Stoneman
• 20 Gavin Lee
• 20 Sean Cannon

The above reflects 15 years of cross country which illustrates how difficult it is to place highly in these races such is the standard of athletes with the best runners out of 10s of thousands of children the same age in action in the same race.

Sarah Woods, Ailbhe Miskella and Asia Clarke 
at the National U15 Cross Country Championships held at Dundalk IT

Craughwell AC’s U13 Boys Cross Country Team 
at the National Championships held at Dundalk IT