Local schools could not be more pleased with the fine running
performances of 10 Tallaght juvenile athletes who successfully
qualified for the Leinster Schools Cross Country Championships at
the West Leinster Schools Championships in the Phoenix Park last
week.
In the first event of the day, Roisin O’ Hanlon, recovering from a
recent bout of flu, proved her capabilities in the minor
girls1800m contest when finishing 4th in her first race for
Presentation Terenure and securing automatic qualification for the
Leinster Championships, which will be held in DCU Sports grounds
Wednesday 8th February.
Jade Corcoran, competing for St Pauls, Greenhills contested the
Junior girls 1800m. From the outset she took an early advantage on
the large field of competitors and in the company of one other
competitor, gradually stretched the field until making a decisive
move with 600m remaining, to run out a convincing winner.
The Inter Girls 2,500m contest produced one of the best results of
the day with the club providing four of the 12 automatic
qualifiers. Aisling Johnston maintained her unblemished record
when she dominated the field from start to finish, running out an
easy winner for Colaiste de H-ide. She was followed across the
line by Aoibheann Tierney running a very solid race to take the
silver medal for Rathcoole Community School with Rebecca Game,
lying 6th with 250m remaining, charging home to take the bronze
for Colaiste de H-ide and Stacey O’ Connor’s also securing the
penultimate qualifying spot in 11th for Colaiste de h-Ide. The
combined score of 14 for the three Colaiste de h-Ide students was
more than sufficient to lift the perpetual team trophy.
Bronagh O’ Hanlon ran a very encouraging race in the senior girls
contest, where she secured the 4th automatic qualifying place for
St Marks.
In the boy’s category Brian Connolly, competing in the Junior
2,500m contest also showed he possesses the qualities of a good
cross country runner when taking the individual silver medal and
leading the Drimnagh Castle team to team victory, whilst in the
Inter boys category, Peter Fitzsimons also had another good outing
when he too won silver for St Marks, Springfield. In the final
race of the day, Anthony Lieghio provided the Castle with another
qualifier when narrowly failed to overhaul the bronze medalist
from Kings Hospital.
The next outing for our athletes will be in Raheny on Sunday 5th
February where some of our seniors and juniors will contest the
Raheny 5 mile road race and our juveniles a 1 mile contest.