Golden show by Galway athletes

GALWAY athletes achieved plenty of success at the recent Aviva Connacht Schools Cross-Country finals held at Sligo racecourse. On what was a tough course, awash with treacherous mud and water, the young Galway competitors acquitted themselves admirably and came whom with a big selection of Connacht medals and titles.

First into action were the minor (U14) girls, where a fantastic run by Laoise Geraghty, representing Taylor’s Hill, saw her claim the gold medal. Other strong runs came from Aisling Kenny of New Inn VS who finished in 8th position and Caoilfhinn Hennessy of Presentation Athenry who was 10th. All three girls have now qualified for the All-Ireland finals which will be held on the grounds of Cork IT on March 8.

The minor boys saw a clean sweep of the medals for Galway athletes, as Oisin Lyons from Calasanctious led from gun to tape to record a commanding victory. He was followed home by Brandon Lee of Pres Athenry and Coláiste Baile Chlair’s Darren Costello.

St. Mary’s College, Galway athlete Stephen Flaherty was next home, finishing in sixth place to lead his team, consisting of Kevin Hourigan, Shane Kyne, Taoefeek Daouda, Husley Tereza, Cian Costello and Mark O’Reilly to the bronze medal. Good runs were also recorded by Donal O’Se of Colaiste na Coirbe (7th), Ryan Oates from the Bish (8th), and the Garbally College pair of Shane Jennings and Odhran Brennan who finished ninth and tenth respectively.

The Junior (U15) Girls race featured a fine run from Aoife Sheehy of Dunmore CS who finished just outside the medals in 5th position, while Laura Nally (Calasanctious), Dearbhaile Walsh (Seamount, Kinvara), Niamh De Faoite (Colaiste na Coirbe), Arlene Earls (New Inn) and Ciara O’Boyle of Pres Athenry all finished in the top 15.

The Junior boys event saw St. Mary’s College in the medals once again as Ryan Traynor O’Toole ran a storming race to claim the bronze medal, and lead his team to the silver medal position. Other St. Mary’s scorers were Gabriel Dossen, Henok Dems and Eimhin Mulkerrins, while strong runs from Glenamaddy’s MacDara Geraghty (4th), Brian Burke of Garbally (7th), Dunmore’s Michael Burke (11th), Rory Murray from the Bish (14th) and Gary Doyle (Galway CC) in 15th place saw them go through to Cork.

For more, read this week’s Galway City Tribune.