The Munster Uneven age Cross-Country championships took place on the 12th November in 2 Mile Borris, in Tipperary. We had 3 athletes that made the long trip. Fionn Hogan was first to run in the boys U-13 and did very well to finish in the top half of the field of nearly 120 runners despite running out of age. He was also part of the Kerry team that finished 4th.
In the
under 15 race Ryan Vickers was always running with the leaders but lost ground
with about 500 metres left in the race. He managed to use his superior
sprinting speed to win by 20 metres. This completes a very rare double of
winning both U-14 and U-15 Munster championships. Conor McCarthy finished in 48th
and both were part of the Kerry team that won the bronze medal.
Samuel
Scroope came 5th in the Killarney Parkrun on the 11th November a few
minutes ahead of coach Jerome Foley. Roisin Hogan ran a very fast time in the
Tralee Junior Parkrun, while in Killarney Tomas Lynch and Ethan O’Sullivan and
his sister Amelia also competed.
On Sunday the
19th Ryan Vickers made the long trip to Gowran in Kilkenny for the
All-Ireland even age cross country championships. Ryan was competing in the
U-14 3K event. After winning the Munster he was hoping to add to his already
substantial collection of championships medals. A field of over 160 runners had
qualified from the Provincial championships. Conditions were very difficult and
after the initial start Ryan found himself in the leading pack. He settled in
around 10th place for the first 2 kilometres before moving through the field.
He took the lead with 300 metres to go. It was always going to be difficult for
anyone to catch him with his sprinting ability and finished comfortably in
first place winning by 15 metres. This is yet another outstanding performance
by Ryan as he became the first member of the club to win an All-Ireland
juvenile cross country title. He also led the Munster team to the Bronze medal.
On the same
day the next generation of athletes were busy in the junior parkruns with Tomas
Lynch and Liam and Matthew Smyth running in Killarney and Fionn Hogan running
in Tralee
The 26th
saw Conor McCarthy add to his growing collection of provincial and All-Ireland
medals with a fine 7th place in the U-15 Munster B Cross Country championships.
Conor finished less than 30 seconds behind the eventual winner.