ATHLETICS | St Peter’s AC stars hoover up the medals despite the mucky conditions in Termonfeckin
Dromiskin athletes go home with 10 individual medals
The rain may have put paid to a host of local sporting events last Sunday but it didn’t stop a group of brave, young St Peter’s AC athletes who enjoyed a hugely successful day at the Louth Cross Country Championships for the uneven ages in Termofeckin.
The boys and girls U15 teams both enjoyed podium finishes with the girls winning silver and boys taking the bronze. Niamh Brady led the girls' team home with a fine run to win individual silver while Ellie Smyth and Isabeal Fitzpatrick both battled their way through the tough course to secure the team silver.
Cian Gorham led the boys' team to the bronze team medal. Although the conditions didn’t suit the speedy runners, Cian dug deep and held on to an individual silver. Sean Allen, who has rediscovered his love of athletics after a break, led the race in the very early stages which was encouraging to see. The final scorer on the team was Conor Litchfield. Conor deserves much credit for running this race as he wouldn’t be a lover of the cross country but his efforts were enough to secure the club a well-deserved championship medal.
St Peter’s had athletes on the podium in both the boys and girls U13 races with Dearbhla Allen and Harry O’Reilly winning silver. Dearbhla has really enjoyed a fantastic year and continues to make massive improvements while Harry enjoyed another strong run and was almost joined on the podium by Ben McKeown who narrowly missed out on a podium finish when he finished fourth.
Donnacha Reidy enjoyed a very strong run in the boys' U11 race and was involved in the business end right from the off. The pace of the race was fast, especially considering the underfoot conditions and Donnacha did really well and won himself a well-earned bronze medal.
Both Liam McKeown and Cian Smyth moved up an age to run in this race and both did exceptionally well. In the girls' U11 race, the club had a team that packed well but were unfortunate not to medal. The team was led home by Hannah O’Reilly before three of the girls, Niamh Allen, Deirbhile Morgan and Grace Carey coming in across the line together.
St Peter’s also had three athletes in the boys' U9 event where Killian McKeown made a great late surge to pass a number of athletes and secure the last of the 10 individual medals. Conor Preston also had a great run in his first cross country race, as did Riley Byrne who lost a shoe, replaced the shoe and sprinted to the finish! The first athlete in action was Caoimha Morgan who enjoyed a great run in the girls' U9 event, battling her way through a large number of competitors to narrowly miss out on a medal.
The next event for the club in the cross country season is the Leinster Championships for even ages which will take place on Saturday, October 26th in Gowran, Kilkenny.
