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National Cross Country Championships Novice & Uneven Age

Posted on Posted in News, Star of the Sea 5th Annual 5k Road Race and Fun Run with Juvenile Programme

The All Ireland Novice and uneven Age Cross Country Championships were held on the Sports Grounds at Waterford I.T. yesterday (15/12/13). The hilly course was a real test of cross country running which definitely suited the cross country or hill running specialist. In spite of tough terrain and as the day progressed the inclement weather there were a number of great individual performances from Meath athletes.

In the Boys under 13 race, Star of the Sea’s Cian McNutly Casey was part of the Meath Team which finished 11th team overall. Cian was 4th Meath Man across the line, finishing in the middle of the field amongst the 143 competitiors. Well done on a fine run by Cian, who only a few days prior was unsure if he would run the race with a niggling knee injury.

Andrew Coscoran (Star of the Sea) with a silver medal in the U19 boy’s 6k race was our highest placed finisher of the day in a race won by Con Doherty (Westport AC). Both athletes had competed in the European Junior Cross Country Championships last week in Belgrade with Coscoran finishing well ahead of Doherty. This time however the Mayo man led from the gun and while Andrew drew level with him in the on the 2nd lap he was not able to match Con on the day as Con pulled away going up the big hill on his 3rd lap. As the athletes took the bell going out on their final lap Doherty had a 150m lead with Coscoran, Brendan O’Connor (An Riocht AC) and Jack McGabhann (DSD AC) all in the fight for the minor medals. While Andrew drew away from Brendan and Jack over the final lap and closed the gap on the Mayo man he had to be content with the silver medal.

The men’s Novice team finished in 5th place in a large field that saw over 220 athletes finish the race. Thomas Moran led the team home when he finished in 27th place in a time of 20mins 48secs. He was closely followed by Loughlin Campion (Dunboyne AC) in 33rd place in a time of 20mins 57secs. Kieron Peters (Star of the Sea AC) came in home in 51st place a further 20secs back.