Connaught Champions, Sionann O'Reilly-Collins, Katie Kelly, Ciara O'Murchadha-Flynn and Laura Mc Intaggart made up the Athlone Community College team taking part in the 40th All- Ireland Schools Cross Country Championship on Saturday March 7.
The event was held in the excellent sporting facilities of the University of Ulster's Jordanstown campus just outside of Belfast. The Community College team took fifth place overall in the junior girls 2.5km run.
Each girl put in an excellent performance towards the overall fifth place for the team. This was a great achievement for the four girls who are not soley focussed on running. The girls are involved in other activities such as camogie, sword fencing, football, soccer, horse riding, and swimming. This was only the second time these girls ran the 2.5k distance which makes their placement all the more remarkable The Leinster teams had a strong presence and ended up with 7 runners in the top 10.
This was the first girls’ running team from the College to take part in the All-Ireland finals. It was a credit to their teacher and coach Michael Lane who has been coaching them at school over the last two years. In their event alone there were 80 plus girls. The runners present on Saturday came through their own school selection process, their regional championships and the provincial championships and as a result a high quality of competition was guaranteed.
