Novice Cross Country double for Nenagh Olympic

Galbally, nestled at the foot of the Galtee mountains, was the setting last Sunday for the County Novice Cross Country Championships.

Conditions were very good for the events and both races attracted very good entries. Mooreabbey Milers AC had everything in place for a great day’s competition.

The women’s 4k race saw 43 athletes representing seven clubs while the men’s race attracted 45 athletes from nine clubs, great to see.

Women

The women’s race over four laps saw the early pace set by Aoife Delargy of Nenagh Olympic and Ruby Carroll of Clonmel AC with a great tussle for the third place between Orla Healy of Moyne AC and Fethard’s Laura Earley.

Delargy stamped her authority on proceedings and came home a very worthy winner in 15 mins 48 secs. This was a brilliant run by Aoife as she turned last year’s silver medal into this year gold.

Ruby Carroll ran on very well to win the silver medal. Indeed, it is great to see both Aoife and Ruby emerging from the juvenile ranks and making their mark in adult competition.

Orla Healy made her move midway through the race to win the bronze medal. For the record, Laura Earley was 4th, Carol Molloy of Fethard AC was 5th with Edel Delaney of Moyne AC 6th.

With both Moyne AC and Fethard AC having two athletes finished and both clubs on nine points, the strong running by Lisa Quinlan of Moyne AC over the final lap saw her finishing 7th and that ensured they won the Club title, by just one point from Fethard AC with Tanya O’Brien of Fethard finishing 8th, great competitive race. The bronze medals were won by the Clonmel trio of Ruby Carroll, Sareen Walsh 13th and Michelle Doherty 15th.

Men

The Men’s 6k over six laps was also very competitive. Here as the athletes came into view at the end of the first lap, we had a group of three athletes setting the pace. They were the Thurles Crokes duo of Tom Tracey & Thomas McCarthy along with Jamie Moloney of Nenagh Olympic.

Then midway through the race the lead was shared by Jamie & Tom. Like his clubmate in the women’s race, Jamie stamped his authority on the race over the final two laps to come home a very convincing champion in 20 mins 40 secs. No doubt both performances were enjoyed by their coach on the sideline, Sean Finn.

Tom Treacy also ran very well to win the silver medal with his clubmate Thomas McCarthy winning the bronze medal. For the record, Shane Moloney of Thurles Crokes was 4th, Mark Corcoran of Nenagh Olympic was 5th, Michael Bourke of Mooreabbey Milers was 6th.

With Denis McCullough of Thurles Crokes finishing 7th, this ensured that Thurles Crokes were very convincing winners of the Club title, thus bridging a gap of seven years. The silver medals were won by the Fethard AC team of Hugh Morgan 8th, Fintan Rice 10th, James Maher 11th & Jack Spillane 16th. The host club won the bronze medals with their team of Michael Bourke 6th, Kevin Patrick Lenihan 14th, Ger Hanley 23rd & Liam Lewis 25th.

Juvenile

Our first individual winner came from Moyne AC in the form of Ella O’Donovan. This same race saw Dundrum AC take the team title by a narrow margin of three points over Moyne AC. Daniel Maher of Templemore AC struck gold in the U10 Boys while it was Fethard AC who took the team title putting all four scoring athletes inside the top-12 finishing positions.

Moyne AC dominated the Girls U12 race where they were lead home by Poppy Shanahan who took the individual title. The 2nd, 3rd & 4th place finishers were also from Moyne which saw them claim the team title with a score of ten points. Darragh Joyce continued Moyne AC’s winning streak in the Boys U12 race while it was Thurles Crokes AC who were top of the pile in the team competition with their four athletes all inside the top 13.

Orlaith Frisby of Carrick-on-Suir AC was on top of the podium in the Girls U14 race having claimed the U12 gold in the same venue last year. Dundrum AC were very impressive in winning the team title with all four athletes inside the top 8. Thurles Crokes claimed their first individual win of the day through Brendan Judge in the Boys U14 races and ensured that his team also retained the Boys team title which the won last year.

Neasa Moloney delighted the home crowd as she secured gold for Mooreabbey Milers AC in the Girls U16 race while Clonmel AC took the team title. The Boys title went to Albert Maher of Dundrum AC, stepping up from his win in the U14 Boys race last year.

The combined U18 Girls and Junior Women’s race saw two Irish internationals go head to head in the form of Jennifer O’Leary (Nenagh Olympic AC) and Emer Brennan (Clonmel AC). O’Leary claimed the Junior title while Brennan claimed the U18 title and silver behind O’Leary in the junior race.

Clonmel AC convincingly secured the team title in both age groups. Newport AC took home their first individual title through Conor Kiely in the Boys U18 race while Diarmuid Moloney of Nenagh Olympic AC claimed the Junior Men’s title while also leading his club to team success.

A changed cross county fixtures list from previous years now sees attention turn to the Munster Even-Age Championships next weekend in the Turnpike, Two-Mile Borris.