Leinster Senior & Uneven Age Juvenile

Leinster Senior and Uneven Age Juveniles

Day 3 of Leinster saw athletes compete at the Curragh Racecourse that gave way to a challenging but enjoyable course, with plenty of sharp bends, undulating hills and plenty of horse manure to watch out for!!! The U9 were first off and although pre entry was required for bib numbers, the rush was on at the start to gather the large crowd of enthusiastic athletes together on time. The race eventually got going, with a flashy medal and tasty bun the deserving reward presented by the hosting club Newbridge Ac. By the time the U11 championship races commenced the fog had lifted, and the sun was doing its best to break through to curtail the wintery feel in the air for those standing eagerly supporting from the barriers. The U11’s 1500m like all the races had the fast start slightly downhill, and with 164 athletes raring for a quick start it was inevitable there would be some fallers just after the gun. Thankfully all were able to carry on with the race unscathed. Ava Ledingham KCH kicked off the start of the individual medals for the Kilkenny contingent, winning bronze on the day with a great finish for 6^th place and to lead her club team home to 3^rd place. The County team was just shy of qualifying having placed 5^th overall. The Boys U11 saw the dynamic duo of Diarmuid Maher and Cian Nolan Castlecomer earn Leinster bronze medals for their brilliant running finishing in 11^th and 12^th place respectively. The Castlecomer club team just missed out on a medal place but they did qualify for Nationals in two weeks. The County team finished 3^rd overall with Liam Holohan TT, Matthew Fennelly TT, Oisin Fogarty CC and Conor McNamara KCH all picking up a bronze medal and heading for Nationals. Cara Burke KCH placed 12^th to claim a bronze in the Girls U13 2500m and leading the County team home to a 6^th place finish overall. In the Boys U13 1500m Luke Hanlon TT running up in age just narrowly missed out on a medal having finished in 13^th place. The top 20 finish for the first 4 boys home for Kilkenny Luke, Daniel McIntyre KCH, Huw Morgan SS and Cian Shortall G helped the County team to 4^th place, qualifying for Nationals in two weeks time also. Abigail Hunt Gowran qualified in superb fashion sticking with the leading pack throughout the race and managed to close down two places on the last 200m to secure her 2^nd Leinster medal in two weeks in the Girls U15 3500m taking 10^th. The great performances by all the girls on the County team was unfortunately just short of qualifying finishing in 5^th place. Daniel Greene was again in flying form in his U15 age group winning comfortably ahead of Zian Soobaya Celbridge AC, who put up a great challenge throughout the race and right to the end, but never looked like passing Greene who strolled home in 00:11:10 for the win. The Girls U17 saw Sinead Cormack once again on the podium in time in 5^th place finishing the 4500m course in 00:17:29. Katie Byrne also medalled in 9^th place taking bronze with Amelia O’Brien and Ellen Cormack making up the Kilkenny City Harriers club team for the silver medal in 2^nd place. The County team will also head to Nationals having qualified in 4^th. It was gold and bronze in the Girls U19 5000m as Shannon and Eleanor Doheny Kilkenny City Harriers controlled the leading pack all throughout the race. Shannon pulled away clear from Emma Hunt with over 500m to go to take the win in style in 00:18.06. Callum Barron who won the National Novice in Abbottstown last year, was back in action taking on the Curragh race course in far better conditions that bestowed him the gold last year. Barron had a great run over the course to finish the 9000m in a comfortable 00:29:59, a great race to set him up for the National Senior in two weeks time. Kilkenny City Harriers were the only team in the Seniors finishing in 4^th overall while the County team was 5^th just two points behind Kildare in 4^th and 7 points off the medals.

Full results;

Girls U11:

6^th Ava Ledingham KCH, 14^th Amy Phelan G, 28^th Katie Kelly SS, 39^th Meabh Nolan G, 44^th Sienna Harrison SS, 45^th Ava Smyth TT, 49^th Elsie Clarke KCH, 51^st Aoife O’Keeffe, 55^th Emma Malone CC 56^th Tamson Clarke KCH, 67^th Sadie Ledingham KCH, 69^th Beth Ann Doyle SS, 89^th Aine Dalton G,143^rd Heidi Connolly SS

Club Teams Kilkenny City Harriers 3^rd, Gowran 5^th County 5^th

Boys U11:

11^th Diarmuid Maher CC, 12^th Cian Nolan CC, 16^th Liam Holohan TT, 27^th Matthew Fennelly TT, 37^th Oisin Fogarty CC, 51^st Conor McNamara, 56^th Patrick Comerford CC, 60^th Daire Smyth CC, 75^th Tom Pollock G, 81^st Ciaran Brennan CC, 84^th Cayden Nolan CC, 88^th Sean Vereker SJ, 94^th Thomas Hunt G, 111^th Jonah Cleere KCH, 118^th Tom Treacy BH, 121^st Con O’Farrell G, 127^th Cillian Hogan KCH, 141^st Cathal Maloney KCH, 155^th James Buckley KCH

Club Teams: Castlecomer 4^th, Kilkenny City Harriers 14^th County 3^rd

Girls U13:

12^th Cara Burke KCH, 30^th Lauren Malone CC, 41^st Emily Maher TT, 58^th Kate Malone CC, 65^th Sarah Collins TT, 71^st Siofra Croke O’Neill TT, 76^th Lucy O’Connell, 102^nd Ailbhe Ni Dhubhda SS, 107^th Lauren Maher TT, 108^th Emma Hayden G, 114^th Millie Walsh SS, 130^th Aoibhe Dooley TT,

Club Teams: Thomastown 9^th County 6^th

Boys U13:

13^th Luke Hanlon TT, 14^th Daniel McIntyre KCH, 18^th Huw Morgan SS, 20^th Cian Shortall G, 30^th Rhys Hetherington CC, Henry Kelly 54^th G, 57^th Cillian Maher KCH, 89th^th Daire O’Shea KCH, 61^st Sam Minogue TT, 94^th Darragh Glynn G, 98^th Conor Maher G, 115^th Conn Sheahan KCH

Club Teams Gowran 10^th Kilkenny City Harriers 12^th County 4^th

Girls U15:

10^th Abigail Hunt G, 32^nd Sinead Grant SS, 36^th Orla O’Keeffe KCH, 42^nd Lydia Phelan G, 50^th Maeve O’Shea KCH, 64^th Laura Alyward SS, 72^nd Ava Hogan SS, 85^th Ellie Mae Aylward SS

Club Team St. Senan’s 8^th County 5^th

Boys U15:

1^st Daniel Greene KCH, 10^th Sam Woodcock KCH, 18^th Dara Phelan BH, 47^th Eoin Hoyne KCH, 58^th Peter Grimley G, 62^nd Jay Pollock G, 74^th Adam Shortall G, 77^th Cian Larkin G

Club Team Gowran 9^th County 5^th

Girls U17:

5^th Sinead Cormack KCH, 9^th Katie Byrne KCH, 24^th Amelia O’Brien KCH, 31^st Ellen Cormack KCH, 43^rd Heidi Ryan KCH, 50^th Emily O’Keeffe KCH, 54^th Sophie Callery KCH,

Boys U17:

11^th Zak Fenton SS, 41^st Gearoid Farrell G, 59^th Simon O’Hanlon SS, 60^th Conor Bradley SS

Girls U19:

1^st Shannon Doheny KCH, 3^rd Eleanor Doheny KCH, 16^th Kate Hayden G

Boys U19:

2^nd Kyrell Mtinsi KCH, 7^th Conor Carroll G, 24^th Evan Aylward SS, 25^th Finn O’Neill SS

Senior Men:

2^nd Callum Barron KCH, 19^th James Kelly CC, 20^th John Behan KCH, 36^th Dean Rowe KCH, 48^th Padraig Ruane KCH, 51^st Johan Muller G, 68^th Matt Ryan G

Club Team Kilkenny City Harriers 4^th

County 5^th