Excellent team packing near to the front of the field enabled the Donore Harriers’ u/15 girls gain second place behind a strong DSD team in the Dublin Uneven Age-Groups Cross Country championships at Tymon Park on Sunday 1st December 2013. The ever improving Keeva Murray led the black and white charge in 6th position. Lucy McCann probably paid the price for a fast opening lap, but dug deep to place 8th. A fast finishing Roisin Rynn-Cahill gained to 9th, whilst Eliza Ni Thighearnaigh closed the scoring four in 11th spot. Rachel Meehan, running in her first cross-country race, gave a solid performance as the support runner and came home in 29th spot at the end of the 3,500m course.

This is a relatively new squad, with only Eliza having previous experience of running in the championship. It augurs well for the future! The team now goes on to compete in the National Uneven XC championships at Waterford on the 15th December 2013.

A number of other Donore juvenile athletes have also qualified for the forthcoming national event, including: – Sam Allen and Ryan Kiernan, who placed 4th and 10th respectively in the Boys u/19s category (6.000m); Niamh O’Neill who placed 10th in the Girls u/17s race and Niamh Dowling who got 7th spot in the u/19s category (both age groups were held in conjunction over a distance of 4.000m); and Oisin Fitzgibbon and Stephen Gavin who were 6th and 12th in the Boys u/17s race over 5.000m. Both these lads ran very measured races with Oisin gaining from 10th at the end of the first lap to 9th by the end of lap 2 to finally gain to 6th at the finishing funnel. Stephen, likewise, gained from 17th – to 14th – to finish in 12th. A special mention also to Sam Allen! Sam’s recent consistent training allowed him to gain two places in the latter half of his fast paced 6.000m race to finish just one place shy of a top 3 spot.

Paul O’Neill, stepping up an age group, had a consistent run despite having to dig deep in the last lap to place 27th overall in the Boy’s u/17s race. Donore also fielded a team in the Boys u/15s race held over 3.500m. The seven-lad team was led home by Gabhan O’Tighearnaigh in 23rd; with Daniel Brady 28th; Tadgh Fitzgibbon 33rd; Sean Creagh (on his debut) 36th, Ruairi Fitzgibbon (stepping-up) 38th; Bjorn Downes 39th and David McGuane (also making his debut) 40th.

There were also a number of runners in the highly competitive younger age-groups with Sean Kinsella 43rd in the Boys u/11s class (1.500m). Sean was stepping-up an age group and took a heavy fall close to the halfway mark. He finished the race full of running and is a real talent for the future. In the Girls u/13s Niamh Clarke 45th and Roisin Brady 50th acquitted themselves well over the 2.500m course, whilst Jack Raftery 26th and Ronan McCooey 44th both ran a little below par in the Boys u/13s race over the same distance.