October '25 Round-Up

20251005 - County Uneven Age XC Championships in Ballynoe

First up we had our U9 Girls comprising of Reidin, Annaelise, Eala, Isabelle, Lucy, Eabha. They raced over 750m, which started with a long hilly drag before they turned. Annaleise and Réidín by each other side for most of the way, until Réidín went ahead slightly to finish in the top 10 in 7th place and Annaelise hot on her heels in 10th. Isabelle ran strong in 20th, Lucy picking it up on the straight before the turn like a woman on a mission finished in 21st, with Eala finishing strong in 24th, and Eabha completing the team in 77th, well done girls. The girls claimed bronze team over all👏

Next up was the u9 boys who were short 1 for a team, which was a pity. Hunter took on the hill like it wasn't there and stormed home in 5th place, followed by Oscar Ryan who is very new to XC racing, which didn't phase him he was 2nd scorer in 12th place. 3rd scorer was Cullie Rochford working his way through the pack in 62nd position - well done boys👏

A big field of 102 for the U11 Girls - these girls have the grit and the heart of lions and getting stronger with each race they run. First home was Addison who runs every race with a smile on her face, who was 35th, shortly behind her Keeva 43rd a real team player, Siún 54th who takes it all in her stride, Shannen 61st steady as ever again, and Aisling completing the pack, they're 10th team in the county well done girls👏

U11 Boys, this is an army of energy and enthusiasm, their 1500m was pretty testing starting with that long drag going all the way up the field, Brian in 24th getting stronger all the time, Jake and Darragh keeping each other company in 33rd & 34th position, Cian & Brendan working their way through the pack in 50th & 56th, Tiernan in 63rd, Gary and Cillian in 72 & 80th digging deep and Darragh & Lee completing the team, these boys have great potential and inspired by the team they're looking up to, they finished 6th in county well done boys👏 

U13 Boys, to have 10 boys on a team is just fantastic at this age, these boys are on a roll, they take off and walk the course themselves and sussing out all the competition and tactics on the way. Diarmuid had a battle with Ronan Gainey his friendly rival, cat and mouse all the way with not a second between them Diarmuid storming home in 2nd place, followed hot on his heels by Olan and James 3rd & 4th nothing between these boys they've come on so much, next up a boy who is going from strength to strength Brogan in 18th, followed by Ernie 21st, then we have Shay who is another boy with the heart of a lion always working hard, next up Conall 35th & Tomas 36th inspired by their team mates up ahead, next Fionn another boy that is a trojan worker when it comes to gaining points for his team and a new addition Jeffery finishing in 54th, super race each and every one of ye, take a bow boys👏👏

U13 Girls Freya, Freya is a great girl she has no team unfortunately and she turns up to every race and gives it her all getting stronger all the time👏👏

U17 Aine Collins, another girl who has no team and turns up to race every time, ran a tactful race and finished very strong👏👏

U19 Isaac Landers, the Lone Ranger a new experience for Isaac running 5k in the field, ran very strong didn't look to knock a thing out of him, well done Isaac👏 

12th October 2025

A few athletes in action this weekend.

First we had John Mason and Donna Savage on another couples date. This time at the Howth Gaelforce 10km. Both of them running strong races in times of 47:30 and 1:02:18 respectively.

Next up is Maurice Walsh who took the family on a trip to Chicago to watch him run a marathon and what a marathon it was…. Smashing his PB by 10 minutes and coming home in a time of 3:10:23.

12th October 2025; Munster even age Cross Country Championships

There's great sporting days and then there's really great sporting days.

24hrs after the Cows left, more than 1,000 young athletes took over Hayes’s farm near Horse and Jockey for the Munster even age Cross Country Championships.

3 yrs ago at the same venue Youghal Athletic Club had 2 participants. This time around we had 28 eager beavers gathered in the Club tent, lacing up their Spikes, and all excited about a great day in prospect.

A lot of talk about how We’d get on, could the lads qualify up in age for the All Ireland Finals in Derry, could we take home any individual medals, far too much Cow Dung, galloping course etc. and that was just the Adults.

When the whistle went for the first race, there was nerves in the air as the stampede left the start line for the U10 Girls.

Ellie Murray excelled after a sluggish start, cruising through the Field to take 12th place, and an individual Bronze Medal. Unfortunately there is no U10 All Ireland Championships for Ellie but She will surely be adding All Ireland Medals in the near future to Her already large collection.

Aisling Murphy, the heart beat of the team followed with Aoibhinn Matthews Clara Kelleher and Amelie Barry, some of whom running their first race all scored well for their Team.

After the celebrations of the first medal of the day, it was back trackside for U10 Boys. A super team in the making was lead home by Brian Kelleher. Having slipped from 12th to 14th with just 200 metres to go Brian knew he'd have to dig deep. He did just that managing to claw back the two positions ahead to take our second Munster medal in as many races. Cian Byrne running his best race ever followed, with Tiernan Parker and the fast finishing Cillian Hogan next to enter the gantry. Lee Walsh and Cullie Rochford finished the scoring for the Team with fine performances.

Only two brave Girls turned out for the U12 race which is disappointing given the talent we have in that age group. Willow Morgan and Siun Rochford smiled their way around the course and finished in exactly the same time of 08:33. Siun had the edge all the way up to the finish with Willow closing on every stride around the last two bends to gain parity with Her colleague.

U12 Boys put in their usual fine performances.a great and fun bunch of lads that always give their all. Brogan McCarthy lead the team home, qualifying as part of the Cork Team as sixth scorer for the All Ireland, with a 23rd place finish.

Darragh Curran, ever improving followed, with closely bunched group of Fionn McCarthy, Brendan Shanahan, the joker of pack, and the quiet man Darragh McGrath O’Mahony next home.

Freya Keating was our only representative in the Girls U14 having her finest performance to date. Always looking comfortable and finishing strongly, Freya was passing plenty of competitors in the last 200 metres.

The U14 Boys were in bonus territory. Running up in ages there was an expectancy of a good performance but the pressure was off.

Oh boy did they meet that expectancy.

Taking third Team (only 4 points off Silver)

3 individual bronze medals and 3 County medals.

Diarmuid Murphy was 5th, Olan Rochford 6th and James Kelleher 11th. Sean O'Donoghue ran brilliantly as 4th scorer with Ernie Sharkey, Shay Walsh and Jeffrey Nicholson all running strongly and taking vital  points.

Race of the Day seen Ruby Devereaux take Silver individual and a Cork medal with a fine performance. Going down the back straight it was a two Man race with the lads a good 200 metres ahead of the chasing pack. Ruby was sitting second and looked to be falling back when he made a move to overtake the eventual winner. He couldn't sustain the effort losing the lead with 400 to go and just coming up short.

Aine Collins getting stronger with every race on the bounce back from an injury struck couple of Years had a fine run in the Girls U18 race and can be quietly satisfied with how the Season has progressed.

Not to be outdone by the Juniors our Chairperson Deirdre Ansbro toed the line in the Ladies Novice race. Completing the 5k in a new PB time and taking a top 30 position.

A wonderful day of Adventure, fun and great racing.

Thanks as always to the magnificent Families who give their time and energy, following the Kids from Field to Field. Your support is magnificent and greatly appreciated. The train keeps rolling for another few Weeks.

26th October 2025; Dublin City Marathon

A massive well done to all our athletes, who took part in the 2025 Dublin City Marathon on Sunday 26th of October 2025. After months of training, and putting in the unseen hours of hard work our 10 athletes embarked on their ‘Victory Lap’ around the streets of Dublin

It was a 8:45am start for Wave 1, and it was a nice dry start for our Wave 1 and 2 runners, wit weather conditions deteriorating with every passing minute – not the worst weather for running though. Each one of our athletes performed great on the day, with many achieving PB’s.

Laura Keane was our first home in a PB of 3:26:37, followed by Mary Flynn, who had a 10-minute PB in 3:39:25. Another with a 10-minute PB was Thomas Moloney who came over the finish line in 3:49:32 ahead of Anthony Sheehan in 3:54:16 and Finbar Kingston in 3:55:05 (PB). Donal Sheahan ran well to come home in 4:09:01 with Maxine Hickey running a very consistently paced race in 4:19:34. Mossy O’ Mahony taking part in his first marathon and putting injury behind him was next home in 4:33:06. Isobel McCarthy had a PB to finish in 4:38:51, and Alicia O’ Halloran finished in style in 4:42:59

Well done to local runners Mark Coady, 3:10:22 and Nathan O’ Halloran, 3:34:51 who completed his first marathon to mark his 21st birthday weekend!!

Great work from all athletes, enjoy the downtime and R&R over the coming weeks