Great success for Longford AC at the National Juvenile B Cross Country Championships in Gowran, Co. Kilkenny.
A fantastic run by Emma Brennan saw her win GOLD in the Under-15 girls 2500m race. Such a brilliant run by a dedicated and determined young athlete who led home the field of 89 entrants with a strong performance. In a close finish, Emma showed her speed to edge clear of Rachel Keaney (Newbridge AC) approaching the finish line. Interestingly, Rachel is a niece of none other than Ray Flynn!
Moyne CS second year student Emma recently won the North Connacht Schools cross country title and has a busy couple of weeks of racing ahead over cross country and indoors. Congratulations to Drumlish girl Emma on a superb National title today to add to the Community Games National 800m gold she won last year on the track.
Rian McCaffrey won bronze in the boys Under-13 1500m with an excellent run and helped Longford AC to win team bronze as well. Ardagh’s Rian got out fast to position near the front and showed no fatigue towards the end to finish well and claim a podium spot. In the top-20 also was the ever reliable Oisín Dillon in a very good 15th and soon after came Daniel Higgins and Eoin Grehan with good performances also to give an overall score of 123 points ensuring third place in the team standings. Great running boys and well done.
The opening race of the day saw a brilliant run by Julie Taitt in the Under-11 girls 1000m placing 26th of the 132 finishers. Having ran the Longford parkrun in 23:00 the day before, Julie showed her speed over 1k on the fast Gowran course. Another very good run also by Julie’s sister Sarah in the Under-13 1500m girls race showing her strength to finish well up and Sarah had also ran a fast parkrun before attending club indoor training on Saturday afternoon with Julie. A great weekend’s running girls!
