Mary Molloy wins Bronze and leads team to Silver medals
The County Novice Cross Country Championships took place in summer like conditions last Sunday in Longford Pass where warm sunshine and good underfoot conditions greeted the athletes. In the Ladies 3k Mary Molloy went with the early lead that soon saw her in the top 3 after the 1st Km. Mary maintained this strong running pace to win her first Cross Country individual medal when winning the Bronze medal in 12 mins 54 secs, great performance and a just reward for all the hard training over the past couple of months where she has recorded some impressive performances on the road this year like breaking 40 mins for 10k. Then we had Sarah Whelan running very well when finishing 11th in 14 mins 59 secs, great running and Sarah preparations for Dublin are going well. Nicola Maunsell making her Cross Country Championship debut for the Club got off to a great start when running very well to finish 12th in 15 mins 15 secs. These three athletes combined very well to win the Inter Club Silver medals.
In the men’s race we had Stephen Hunter running a great race throughout what was a very competitive event to finish 7th in 22 mins 3 secs. This was an impressive performance by Stephen who only recently returned to competition after a lengthy lay off due to a broken leg, great comeback performance. Niall O Ceallaigh also ran very well when finishing 16th in what was a record entry. Niall’s finishing time was 23 mins 15 secs. Then we had Anthony O Brien also running well when finishing 32nd in 25 mins 30 secs. Peter O Connell was another athlete making his Cross Country Championship debut for the Club and he should be pleased with his performance which saw him finishing 39th in 26 mins 22 secs. Maurice Boland also ran well when finishing 47th in 29 mins 26 secs, great to see Maurice back competing again. Colin Ryan making his Championship debut for the Club ran well when finishing 49th in 31 mins 36 secs. The Club finished 6th in the team event.