Lally and Creaven shine at Cross Country finals

LUCKILY, the rain held off for the staging of the Aviva Connacht Schools Cross-Country Championships last week and the crowd attending were treated to a fine afternoon of intense competition from the young athletes gathered from all across the province.

For the second year running, St. Mary’s College played host to this event, and the fine spacious grounds of the college proved to be a fine test of stamina for the nearly eight hundred athletes competing.First into action were the minor (U-14) girls and this race certainly set the trend for the rest of the day, with a mere ten meters eventually separating the first three athletes across the line. First home was Orla McCann from Swinford, followed closely by Laura Moran from Ursuline Sligo with the South Connacht champion Ciara Green from the Bower in Athlone in third place.

The team event was a close fought battle between two Sligo schools, with Ursuline eventually coming out on top ahead of their local rivals Sligo Grammer. The bronze medal position was filled by the girls from St. Brigids VS Loughrea.

The Minor boys’ race turned into an excellent two man battle between St. Mary’s College student Padraic Creaven from Menlo and William Hynes from St. Attracta’s Tubercurry. Eventually, the Mary’s lad showed he had more in his legs when sprinting away at the finish to achieve a popular win for the hosts.

In third place Tadhg McGinty ran solidly to ensure that Scoil Mhuire agus Padraig Swinford were once represented on the podium. In the team event, Creaven’s performance wasn’t enough to help his St. Mary’s teammates retain their title, instead helping them to the silver medal behind a powerful St. Enda’s College team that ran strongly throughout.

The Junior (U-15) girls race saw the crowd treated to a powerful tour-de-force from Presentation Athenry student Allana Lally. Fresh from having recorded an excellent victory while representing Ireland last weekend, she showed her class when running clear to take the gold medal from the South Connacht champion Anne Daly of the Bower in Athlone and Maebh Brannigan from Colaiste Iognaid. Daly did, however, have the consolation of leading her team to the gold medal, while Brannigan’s Jes team just held off local rivals Salerno for the silver medal.

The Junior boys event saw another excellent race between two Sligo athletes as Liam Crowe from Sligo Grammar just got the upper hand over Summerhill Sligo student Cian McBride. In third place Portumna’s Niall McIntyre ran a well controlled race to finish ahead of his South Connacht conqueror Nicholas Sheehan of Calasanctious, Oranmore, but Sheehan did have the consolation of leading his team to a comprehensive victory, as they finished well clear of Sligo Grammar, with hosts St. Mary’s once again showing their overall strength when taking the bronze medal.

For more, read this week's Connacht Tribune.