ATHLETICS | Harry leads the St Peter’s charge at Cross Country Championships

Day two of the Louth Cross Country Championships, hosted by North East Runners, took place on Sunday at DkIT.The busy programme included the Intermediate Championships for adults and uneven ages for juveniles.

The girls U9 race started the juvenile programme and St Peter’s had the O’Reilly twins in action over the 600m course where the first 10 received medals. Both girls enjoyed very strong runs with Emily coming in fourth place and Hannah in seventh.

In the girls U11 race, the club had two athletes compete over the 1500m course. Dearbhla Allen enjoyed another great run and although she didn’t have a great start she worked her way up through the large field to finish in fourth place. She was followed by her clubmate, Catherine Carey, who ran well considering she was out of age.

The boys U11 event was a really great race for the St Peter’s club on two fronts. Harry O’Reilly got his just rewards for his recent efforts in training when he finished a very strong second and he also led the St Peter’s team home to silver along with the ever improving Ben McKeown and debutants Ruairi Carpenter and Michael O’Brien.

St Peter’s also had a team in the girls U13 race which was run over 2500m course and the girls were also in the medals, finishing in third place. Niamh Brady led the challenge, closely followed by Julie McLoughlin, Ellie Smyth, Isabeal Fitzpatrick and Judith Bell.

In the boys U13 race, Cian Gorham executed a very tactical race to win his first individual Cross Country Championships medal when he took bronze. Cian also led the St Peter’s team home to a silver team medal with Mark Litchfield just behind him, closely followed by Sean Allen and the ever reliable Dean Murtagh.

Newcomer Calum Grant, to his credit, also took to the start line in the boys U15 race and didn’t look out of place over the 3500m course even though he was was out of age and is new to the sport of athletics.

Earlier in the day, the club had two representatives in the ladies intermediate race which was over the 4000m distance. Both coped very well and set a great example to the club’s young athletes with Catriona McKeown and Sarah McCann representing the club with pride.

Next up is the Glenmore AC Cross Country meeting which will take place next Sunday for juveniles followed by a 5K Road Race for the adults. Training continues on Tuesday and Thursday at 6.30pm.

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