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Athenry AC had a great day out at the County Galway Cross Country Championships yesterday taking both of the individual senior races, gold men’s senior medals and silver women’s team medals. The races, which were held in the beautiful Dartfield Equestrian Centre just west of Loughrea in overcast, windy but thankfully dry conditions on a one kilometre loop of glorious East Galway parkland. Galway athletes were unanimous in their praise of Dartfield for making such a fine venue available as a venue for the county championships this year. On any other day of the year Dartfield is well worth a visit on its own merits.

Kathryn Casserly and Ann Carter Dispute The Women's Senior Race

Kathryn Casserly and Ann Carter Dispute The Women's Senior Race

The championships yesterday combined a number of under-age juvenile, junior and senior races. In this report I’ll concentrate on the adult races and hopefully we can report separately on the under-age results later today or tomorrow as there were some outstanding performances from our younger athletic stars.

Athenry AC was very proud to have entered its first ever women’s team into this championship and the seven-strong team was lead home to glory by the prestigious talent of Ann Carter who claimed the senior women’s individual title ahead of perennial Castlegar AC star Catherine Casserly. The two athletes tussled for the lead for most of the 3,000m course with the lead changing hands several times before the Athenry AC woman eventually asserted herself within sight of the finishing line and went on for a clear win. The remaining members of the Athenry AC team (Maria Hehir, Maeve Noone, Pauline Murrray, Breege McGrath, Grainne Breen and Debbie Flynn) ran on superbly well to claim silver medals in the team event at their first ever attempt. Grannie Breen also claimed an individual silver medal in the Novice competition. There was great spirit amongst the women's team and they thoroughly deserved their success. Congratulations to all involved on fantastic performances.

The Start of The Women's Race

In the men’s race, which combined the junior, novice, intermediate, senior and masters events, Athenry were also to the fore. Paul McNamara retained the county title he won in Tuam last year and led his team-mates home to the men’s team title in the process. The winning men’s team was completed by Brian O’Connor, Seamus Gilhooley and Mick Rice. Craughwell took silver team medals while the bronze medals were claimed by Galway City Harriers. Athenry was proud to have a very strong men’s contingent at the championships and fielded fourteen men in all categories. The full Athenry AC contingent on the day was, Paul McNamara, Peter Delmer, Brian O'Connor, Brian Bruton, Mick Rice, Owen Curran, Seamus Gilhooley, Mike Rooney, James Lundon, John O'Connor, James Corbett, Frank Burke, Martin Keane and Mark Breen.

A Fine Body of Men...:-)

Martin Keane followed up his win in the Club Championships last week by claiming silver in the men's M60 category just behind young Micky Kelly of Tuam and Mick Rice finished third in the M40 category, behind Craughwell's Martin Corcoran and Tuam's Tommy Joe Whyte.

It was fantastic to see so many people wearing Athenry colours around the field. It was a day of competition that every member of the club can be proud of.

Athenry AC Men's Team:Athenry AC Men's Team
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pmagnier

16 years 5 months ago

Fantastic. Well done, particularly to all the women, most or all of whom seem to be in their first year of competition. Sorry to have missed that.

alanburke

16 years 5 months ago

Well done to all, that really was a fantastic turnout, and some cracking running.

Peter Delmer

16 years 5 months ago

To me a huge achievement was that Athenry AC fielded half of the women's field (7 of 14 runners) and half of the men's (14 of 28 runners). Great credit to all the medal winners on the day, but also to the club for getting out there in force!