Galway athletes took full advantage of the favourable conditions at the Athletics Ireland West Region Cross Country Championships for juvenile athletes aged under 11 to under 19 years. Hosted by Tuam Athletic Club, the championships saw a host of impressive performances from Connacht athletes. Individual titles were won by Liam Costello of Galway City Harriers in the u-11 boys, Annie Tynan Daly of Ballinasloe & District in the u-13 girls, Alanna Lally of GCH in the u-15 girls, and the Brassil sisters of Ballinasloe, Sive and Maeve, in the u17 and u-19 girls’ competitions respectively.
In the u-11 girls Rosie Flynn of GCH was first Galwegian home with a bronze medal, leading her club and county to team gold, while Galway were comfortable winners ahead of Mayo in the inter-county competition. Maeve Moran, Sarah McDonnell and Emma Connolly completed the victorious GCH team, while the above athletes combined with Shannon Lee, who led Athenry AC to silver medals, Dearbhaile Walshe, Aoife Greene and Cliona Ni Clochain to complete the Galway County scorers. Siobhan McGrath, Lydia Doyle and Emily McMeminan completed the Athenry scorers.
In the u-11 boys’ race GCH’s Liam Costello, Bronson Kelly and Paraic Commins pulled off a rare clean sweep of individual medals. Luke O’Shaugnessy completed the GCH scoring team for inevitable gold medals in the inter-club competition while James Cahalane of Craughwell, Brian Burke of Ballinasloe, and Isis Richards of Craughwell combined with the GCH boys for a huge margin of victory in the inter-county competition.
Annie Tynan Daly led the Galway county team to victory when winning the u-13 girls’ individual title. Maebh Brannigan, Laura Ann Costello, Ciara Greene, Sinead Treacy and Aisling Ni Flatharta completed the victorious county team. Craughwell AC’s Gavin O’Toole, Damien O’Boyle, Oisin Doyle and Brian Concannon had 10 points to spare when winning the u-13 boys’ team prize.
Alanna Lally won the u-15 girls’ event, and she also had the honour of leading Galway to inter-county gold with Kate Burke, Lorna Hannon, Veronica Burke, Michelle Burke and Muireann Moloney completing the successful county team. Ballinasloe & District took silver medals in the inter club competition with the Burke sisters, Kate, Veronica and Michelle combining with Maedbh Hurst.
Galway were victorious in individual, inter-club and inter-county categories in the u-17 girls’ race with Sive Brassil taking individual gold to add to the u-16 title she won in Ballinamore. Michelle Maher of GCH took the bronze medal while Athenry’s Helen Geraghty, Yvonne Keary, Aideen Healy and Sorcha Murphy combined for inter-club gold. Galway also took gold in inter-club and inter-county competition in the u-17 boy’s race. Cian Corcoran of GCH took the individual silver, while Craughwell athletes David Concannon, Peadar O’hIarmhi, Alan Byrne and Paraic Tobin combined for the club gold. GCH took the club silver with Corcoran leading Keith Fallon, Adrian Hardiman and John Gillane to medals, while the above athletes combined to give Galway a comfortable inter-county gold.
Maeve Brassil won the individual gold in the u-19 girls’ event, while Eimear Hanahoe of GCH took the silver medal home.
