Munster Masters & Juvenile'B' Cross Country C'Ships 2014

The Munster Masters and Juvenile B Cross Country Championships took place in Watergrasshill last Sunday 30th November 2014 in very good conditions. We saw some great performances from club members in what were very competitive, large entry races. The course consisted of a long downhill run at the start which took the runners into a long gradual climb and ended with a fast downhill to the finish.

Full Results: Master Women & Men    Juvenile 'B'
Pictures from our Flickr Gallery: HERE

First up was Sean Fenton & Kian Costello in the U9 750m race. Sean who won the county U9 race and missed the Munster A's due to illness had a great start and took the lead after about 200m's. Sean built on his lead and finished very comfortably in first place. Kian equally ran very well to finish in 31st place.'

Sean led the county team to Gold and he was teamed up with athletes from Kenmare AC & Spa Muckross.

Shauna McCarthy was up next in the U11 1000m. Shauna, who won the county U11's and came in 14th in the Munster A's ran the perfect race. At the bottom of the hill she was the top 30 runners, she continued to stay wide and passed over 20 runners in the up hill straight to place her in the top 10. Coming into the final downhill straight she was in 5th place. With a great sprint finish she took 2nd place. The Kerry team were 4th overall.

In the U11 boys race we had 3 competing, Cian Spillane, Malachy Kirwan & Cormac Costello.

Cian Spillane, who just joined our club in September had a good start and was in the top 20 at the half way point. Coming into the final straight he was in 13th place and knowing Cian's fast finish did very well and finished in 12th place overall earning himself his first individual Munster medal. Malachy continues to improve and finished in 33rd with Cormac taking 53rd out of 111 runners.

So well done to our juveniles who picked up 3 individual Munster medals. A great achievement.

We were fortunate this year to have a club team in the Masters Women's 4000m race. The 5 team members were: Maria McCarthy, Caitriona Barry, Michelle Hoare, Eileen Egan & Kathleen Chambers. From the onset Maria McCarthy took the lead, followed close behind by An riocht's Niamh O'Sullivan. After the first 1000m Maria & Niamh had opened up a large gap from the remainder of the field. Caitriona Barry was running very well and at one point she had worked her way up into 4th place.  In the main pack we had Michelle, Eileen & Kathy having their own battles fighting for positions.
Maria held the lead right through the race with

Niamh hot on her heels. With 200m to go Maria up a gear and opened up a big gap to cross the line first and also winning the O40 age category. Caitriona Barry finished in 6th place overall and was 3rd in the O40 category.

With some great running from Michelle & Eileen, Farranfore Maine Valley AC took 2nd place in the O35 team. Our club also secured 2nd in the O35 county team made up of Maria, Caitriona, Michelle & Kathleen.
This just showed the importance of fighting for places and finishing the race. There was some great running from Maria, Niamh & Caitriona who represented the county in the National Seniors race last weekend.

Maria & Caitriona will be in action again next week-end when they represent Kerry in the National Novice XC in Santry. We wish them all the best.