Thornton and Whiriskey take senior cross country titles

Loughrea AC’s superb complex at Bushfield saw some fantastic cross country races at the weekend, as the Galway Cross Country Championships got underway with Adult races and day one of the Juvenile events.

Gary Thornton of GCH won the Galway Senior Men’s Cross Country title, leading from gun to tape, with young clubmate Keith Fallon in second. Peter O’Sullivan of Craughwell was a fine third, after challenging early on for the lead.

Oliver Mullins and Rob Hogan of Craughwell both had excellent runs to complete the top five, with Mullins taking the Masters Over 35 title in the process.

Tommy Joe Whyte lead the way for Tuam AC and also won the M50 category once again. GCH took the team prize with Conor Dolan and John Cronin also scoring alongside Thornton and Fallon, ahead of Craughwell AC in second.

The women’s race saw a resurgent Caroline Whiriskey take the county title to great acclaim on home turf. Running in the colours of host club Loughrea AC, Whiriskey took an early lead from GCH’s Alvy Carragher and stretched her lead over the 4km race to end up a comfortable winner.

Carragher ran a strong race to take second, a solid performance after having ran a half marathon the day before, with GCH athlete Niamh Hennelly taking bronze. Again, GCH won the team crown, with Jane Walsh and Imelda Gormally also scoring – Gormally also took the Masters title with a flying last lap.

The Even Age Juvenile races also took place on Sunday, in advance of the adult races, and there were big fields and strong individual and team performances across all events.

Craughwell AC had winners in Sean Cotter (U-12 Boys), Oisín Lyons (U-16 Boys), Caron Ryan (U-16 Girls), Ciara Greene (U-18 Girls), Ben Vahey (U-18 Boys) and Conor Gillen (junior men).

GCH athletes took gold at U-12 Girls via Cara Mcclain, U-14 Girls with Eadaoin Langan, and U-14 Boys through Aaron Brennan.

There were superb wins also for Mark O’Halloran of Athenry AC and Ava McKeon of Ballinasloe AC at U-10 level.

At team level, Craughwell AC took five titles – U-10 , U-12, U-14 and U-16  Boys and U16 Girls – whilst Athenry AC took U-10 and U-14 Girls team titles, and GCH the U-12 Girls category.

This weekend sees the Galway Uneven Ages championships for Juvenile Ages from U-11 to U-19 take place at the Palace Grounds in Tuam at 1pm.

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