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The Galway Cross Country Championships on Sunday was one of those rare occasions when the clubs under-age and adult athletes compete on the one stage. The performances of our juveniles early in the day left our seniors in no doubt that they had a tough act to follow. Indeed, Athenry AC’s juveniles had one of their most successful outings in quite some time, picking up 2 team golds, 3 team silvers and 4 individual medals at the Galway juvenile cross country championships for u11’s to u19’s.

The best performance of the day from an Athenry perspective came from the u13 girls team of Marie Touhy, who led the team home with the win, Hayleigh Somers, Dearbhla Fox, Lorna Hannon, Tara Murphy and Louise Brennan who filled the top 4 individual places, captured all 3 individual medals, and captured the team gold with a perfect score of 10 points. For Marie, this is her 3rd win of the cross country season having already picked up county and provincial primary schools titles.

The u11 girls team also packed well to pick up the country title in that category. Rachel O’Brien, Grace Cahill, Roisin Holland, Eimear Keane and Eilish Hynes all returned home with team gold around their necks, along with individual silver for Rachel O’Brien.

The u15 girls had a good battle with GCH, missing out on team gold by just 4 points on a score of 40 to GCH’s 36. Yvonne Keary, Sinead Touhy, Leticia Collins, Sorcha Murphy, Helen Geraghty and Hannah Kindregan were the Athenry athletes who captured team silver medals.

Our u17 girls also put in strong performances in a competitive field to also capture the team silver. Aoife Touhy, who led the team home in 4th, Serena Hansberry, Niamh Grady and Chloe Callanan all performed well only to be pipped by a strong GCH outfit.

Our u11 boys team of Stephen Coleman, Mac Murphy, Keelan Burke, Kevin Gannon, Killian Johnson and Keith Whyte all ran well to pick up 5th team in that category.

Our u13 boys picked up team silver behind GCH with Eamon Mannion leading the team home in 4th, Matthew Mills in 6th, Stephen Callanan 10th and Darren Kelly 11th to finish with 31 points to GCH’s 19.

Our u15 boy’s were not at full strength on the day, which may have cost them team gold. However, the individual who competed excelled with Shane Conway in 4th, Brendan Brennan 7th and Darragh Whyte 8th.

Well done to all our young athletes. It's fair to say that the seniors lived up to their side of the bargain with the clubs best ever results at these championships. See Mick's report on the senior performances here http://www.athenryac.com/athenry-women-strike-silver-dartfield .

Given the outstanding results of the clubs senior and juvenile athletes there is no doubt the club is in rude good health.

Next up on the calendar for our juveniles is the West Region cross country champs for u12’s to u18’s in Ballinamore next Sunday, 28th October.