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County
Junior and Senior titles down for decision
The County Junior and Senior
Cross Country Championships for Ladies and Men will take place in Ballingarry village this Sunday at 1 o clock. The full
programme of races will be Junior Ladies, Junior Men, Senior Ladies and Senior
Men, with the Junior Ladies starting at 1 pm. This
is a first for Ballingarry, to hold a County Cross
Country Championships under Athletic Ireland rules. These Championships are
being promoted by the local club, Coolquill, who I am
sure will have everything in order for the Blue ribbon events of the Cross
Country season. To date this year’s Cross Country season has proven to be a
fantastic success with record entry in both the Novice and Intermediate
Championships. Hopefully Club will continue their great support of these
Championships and in this case it is worth noting that where Club enter two
teams their 2nd team will contest the B Section which is solely for
2nd teams and this could be a great race.
Back to the Championships, in the
Senior Men’s race Christopher Bracken will be going all out to win his 3rd
consecutive County Senior Cross Country title and going on his great
performance when winning the Munster under
23 Championship in the Turnpike recently he will be hard to beat. It is great
to see Christopher running well again. Other athletes that will have a major
say in the destination of the medals includes the Ballynonty duo of Kenny
Curran and Danny Smith as well as the Dundrum trio of
Pat Ryan, James Ryan, Martin Keane as well as Shane Mullaney
and tony Fogarty of Thurles Crokes and Stephen Hunter
of Clonmel. In the team competition the defending Champions for the past four
years, Dundrum will be striving to hold onto their
title. They will again face tough competition from Thurles Crokes who have
finished 2nd in the last few years. Dundrum
will again be relying on Pat and James Ryan, Martin Keane and Ruaidhri Devitt who is running
well this season, hopefully John Shanahan who got
injured at the recent Munster Novice Championships will be able to compete.
Thurles Crokes will be relying on Christopher Bracken, Shane Mullaney, Tony Fogarty, Billy Phillips and Denis Shanahan.
The host Club will be warm favourites over familiar territory to also get among
the team medals and they will be able to call upon Ross Alexander, Dermot
Logue, Tadgh Vaughan, Brendan Delaney and Joe Keaney. Ballynonty will be looking to athletes like Kenny
Curran, Danny Smith, Sean Hanley and Neillie Hall
while Carrick on Suir will be looking to athletes like
Anthony Grace, Mick o Loughlin, Tommy falconer and
Mark Connolly. Clonmel will be looking to athletes like Stephen Hunter, Niall O
Ceallaigh, John Walsh and Ned O Brien.
It should be a great race with Christopher bracken and Dundrum
favourites to retain their Titles.
In the Ladies race the
defending Champion is Madeline Dorney of Thurles
Crokes. She is running well at present and She can
expect tough competition from Siobhain O Doherty of
Borrisokane if she competes. Other athletes that could come into the equation
are Angela McCann of Clonmel the present County Novice and
Intermediate Champion, as well as Aine Roche and
Catherine Rice of Clonmel as well as Mary Keane of Dundrum,
Ashling Hoey of Moycarkey Coolcroo and the
Thurles Crokes duo of Nora Kennedy and Mary Moloney. In the team event Thurles Crokes are the
defending Champions and they can call upon the above three mentioned athletes
while Clonmel will also be strongly fancied to add this title to the Novice and
Intermediate team awards won already this year. Clonmel will start as
favourites to win the team event while the individual tile could rest between
Madeline, Siobhain and Angela.
The programme next Sunday gets
underway with the Junior Ladies race and here the warm favourite will be
Catherine Kelly of Dundrum while in the Junior men’s
race the title could rest between Niall McCormack of Clonmel and Keith Maher of
Thurles Crokes with Thurles Crokes favourite to win the team event |