Kildare Cross Country Championships Round 1

The first round of the Championships took place today in sunshine at Eire Og in Carragh, Co. Kildare. Unfortunately a number of teams were lost due to no shows from athletes. The only age group that we managed to have a team event was the Girls U9, who finished a respectable 5th over all.
U9 Team: Abbey Tarrant (27th), Aoife Maloney (21st) Ciara Mulleady((12th) and Laura Browne (17th)
U9 boys: Oran Hayes (12th) & Ruairi Hession (8th)
U11 boys: Ciaran Connolly (17th), Andrew Hession (18th)
U11 Girls: Emma Browne(25th) Carragh Hayes (9th)
U13 boys: Thomas Connolly & Patrick Flanagan
U15 boys: Darragh Nolan
U17 Boys: Conor Murphy 1st - Kildare Champion.

The Girls U9 were the first up and they did great they all had smiles on their faces, for Abbey and Aoife is was their first taste of competition. Well done. U9 Boys, both Oran and Ruairi had a great debut race and they were cheered on by their proud parents. U11 girls, this saw an increased distance this year. Carragh had a great race as was well up coming into the home straight, Emma did great and still mananged to smile at the finish. U13 boys competed well in a very large field, unfortunately I don't have their exact finishes, but well done to you Patrick and Thomas, Poor Conall wished he was running with you but had to be content with cheering them on from the sidelines. Nest up was Darragh Nolan, running out of his age, Darragh put in a very solid performance and did himself and the club proud, up against lads who were twice his size he finished in fine style, Darragh race was 3k. Last but not least was Conor Murphy, Conor worked very well in his race and looked very comfortable and dealt with the pressure from his rival from Newbridge, who remained on his shoulder. Conor did all the work but on this occasion he was not to be beaten and stretched his lead to over 200m to win. Congratulations.

Many thanks to all the parents who cheered and supported all the atheltes today, thanks also to Pat Hayes a fellow coach.

Can I remind all parents that all athletes are entered into the Kildare Championships and that we will try arrange lifts if parents are unable to attend themselves. Please just let us know. The next round is on Sunday 10th October in Crookstown. Its the even ages, so U10's - U18 with Master Men and Women, but that also means that all athletes can move up an age group to compete ouU9 can move up and compete out of their age, eg; U9 move upwards to U10 and so on.