The juvenile club cross-country season came to a close on Sunday last with the National Novice and Juvenile Uneven Age Cross-Country Championships taking place in Abbotstown.
Laois athletes excelled at the Championships collecting five individual medals, while one St Abban’s team came up just short of a team medal when finishing 4th.
Conditions in Abbotstown were challenging to say the least with a large amount of rainfall in recent weeks. With large numbers in the early races, the later races had very tough underfoot conditions.
Sinead Fitzpatrick of St Abban’s was the star of the show once again as she claimed her second All-Ireland title in a couple of weeks.
On Sunday she was running out of age and still managed to take the Girls U-15 title in style adding to her U-14 title won in Derry two weeks ago.
While the conditions were extremely testing by the time the U-15 got underway, Sinead enjoyed the tough conditions to lead the field home.
There was a big Laois contingent in this race with Hannah Luttrell (41st), Aoileann Ni Chomhraide (123rd), Eabha McCoubrey (135th) and Sadhbh Ni Chomhraide (160th) all representing St Michael’s.
Ellie Knowles was next home for St Abban’s in 51st place. Ella Murray was just behind her in 78th and Laura Ayers was next in 87th. Mollie Kelly completed the team in 134th place.
The girls finished just outside the medals in 4th place in the club competition and 8th in the county event. Sinead also led the Leinster team to gold medals.
Ava Brophy set the tone for the day in the very first race for St Abban’s in the U-11.
Ava got off to a great start and maintained her position well throughout the very testing course. She continued to make places and finished 10th overall after 1500m.
Ava was also part of the Leinster team which finished in 2nd place that included Portlaoise AC’s Leah McDonald who came 16th.
St Abban’s Conor Keegan followed this example in the next race in the Boys U-11.
He got out strongly and showed his stamina coming home in 7th place overall. Conor was also part of the Leinster team who won gold in the provincial competition. In the same race Rian Bolton finished in 91st position.
Next up was the Girls U-13 500m race where Bailee Bolton was the sole athlete representing St Abban’s and Laois.
Bailee, who has been in great form all year ran a very strong race to come home in 9th place overall.
She claimed a further team medal when she scored on the Leinster team who finished in 3rd province.
The Boys U-17 race saw more medal glory for Laois as Riley Connelly took silver.
Gearoid McCann (96th), Jack Bennett (112th) and Nathan Hayes (120th) also represented St Michael’s.
Will Duffy, Kalem Buggy and Eoin Mulkerrins represent St Abban’s. The lads were tested over 4500m with underfoot conditions worsening by the race.
Will Duffy was first home for the club in 58th. Kalem Buggy was next in 72nd and Eoin finished in 83rd place. The lads helped the Laois team to 6th County along with Riley Connolly, Gearoid McCann and Jack Bennett.
In the U-17 Girls, Ava Shore (44th), Lucy Shore (47th) and Cara Dooley (90th) all represented Portlaoise AC.
While Aine O’Loughlin (99th), Caoimhe Rennick (114th), Karen Melia (117th) and Sara Fanning (121st) ran for St Michael’s.
In the final Juvenile event of the day Annabelle Lawlor finished in 37th place in the Girls U19 5000m. Anabelle was a scoring member of the Laois team who finished just outside the medals in 4th place.
Anabelle was joined on the team by the two McLoughlin sisters Katie (18th) and Della (38th) both of Oughaval AC as well as Siobhán O’Loughlin (31st) of St Michael’s.
Laura Ward was the final athlete in action from St Abban’s in the Novice Women 4000m. Laura finished in 69th place overall.
Well done to all of the Laois athletes who qualified to compete. National Championships are always difficult and medal are few and far between.
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