2012 Ulster & Northern Ireland Uneven Age & Novice Cross Country Championships
Annalee AC athletes were to the fore at the Ulster & Northern Ireland Uneven Ages & Novice Cross Country Championships in Killybegs, Co Donegal on November 11th 2012 with three individual Golds in the U9 Boys, U11 Girls and U17 Girls, and one Bronze medal in the Men’s Novice Cross Country.
Clodagh O'Reilly made it 4 Ulster championships in a row winning the U17 Cross Country Championship to add to the U16 title she had won two weeks previously. Clodagh finished the 3000m race well in front and over 30 seconds ahead of the silver medal-winning athlete. In the U11 Girls age group Mary Kate Gannon won her second Ulster championship title with a great win. Mary Kate had stayed in the leading group for the first segment of the race but sprinted away from the field with 300m to go and she was a clear winner in the end. Blathnaid O’Reilly also ran strongly to finish 15th and both athletes were part of the second placed County Cavan team. The remaining team members of Emily Sheridan (22nd) and Bevan McCaffrey (36th) combined with the top two to finish in 4th place, just outside of the medals but good enough to qualify for the All Ireland Championships.
Odhran O'Reilly was another winner on the day when he won the U9 nonchampionship race. Odhran had a good strong run as he led from the start to finish clear of the other athletes. Cian O'Reilly won the Bronze medal in the hotly competed Ulster Men's Novice race. There were over 70 athletes entered in the Novice category. This led to some crowding of athletes on part of the course. Cian and two Finn Valley athletes broke clear and although Cian finished strongly, his sprint finish just wasn’t enough to win. He finished in a time of 22:47s, which was six seconds behind first place and just two seconds behind second place.
Ciaran O’Reilly rounded off a good day for the O’Reilly family when he finished in 7th place in the U13 Boys, a placing that qualifies Ciaran for the All Ireland Championships. Daire O’Reilly was 28th, Patrick McPhillips 39th and Shane McGovern 53rd in the U13 Boys. Emily Sheridan was the sole Annalee AC runner in the U13 Girls and she finished 56th in a big field and 11th placed finisher on the County Cavan team. Caoimhe O’Reilly was 43rd and the 7th Cavan runner home on the county team, which finished in 4th place. There were nine runners from the club in the Boys U11 race. This was the first Ulster race for many of these athletes and they acquitted themselves well with Conor Galligan in 28th, Conal Ruddy in 39th and Alex Prior in 42nd. The other finishers were Cormac Hegarty, Daniel Madigan, Dallan McKenna, James Fahey, Niall O’Shea and Sean McGovern and they all clearly enjoyed the experience of running in the large field of runners.
All the club qualifiers go through to the All Ireland Championships, which will be held over two days on November 25th in Ratoath, Co. Meath and on December 9th in Co. Wexford. Link to full results here and photos are posted on Annalee AC Flickr site