The Galway County Cross Country Championships were held in Tuam's Palace Grounds for juvenile uneven ages and the various adult categories. It wasn't a day for the beach and that was for sure. As the earlier juvenile races were run off in attrocious conditions it was impossible not to admire the strength and sheer guts of the young runners who braved the wind, rain and muck to chase dreams around a park in Tuam. At a time when young people often come in for some criticism from their elders for not being as 'tough' as earlier generations, it was fantastic to see runners of all ages shrug off the poor running conditions and 'just do it'.
The senior races were always going to closely contested and the Athenry women's team went to the starting line hoping to improve on last year's silver team medals. Their hopes were dented late in the day by the unexpected withdrawal of last year's senior county champ, Ann Carter, who was nursing a slightly sore calf. Ann is in fantastic shape at the moment and her decision not to run, although agonising for herself on the day, was surely the sensible option with the Dublin marathon only just around the corner. Despite Ann's absence the club fielded a very stong team in Elaine Walsh, Jane-Ann Healy, Valerie Glavin and Maeve Noone. All four Athenry AC runners placed in the top ten, in positions 2,3, 6 and 10 respectively, which was a tremendous achievement. They were however just pipped at the post for the gold medals by GCH who ran very stongly and were led home by international runner Orla Ni Mhuircheartaigh. Bernie Kelly, Alison Liddy and Eve Daly completed the GCH gold-medal quartet. Sincere congratulations to the GCH women's team.
In the men's senior race Athenry AC were up against it to retain the team title that we had won for the last two year. Once again we were missing our star performer from last year in Paul McNamara who couldn't run on the day due to working commitments. Despite this disadvantage the Athenry men ran strongly and with Seamie Gilhooley in 4th, Brian O'Connor in 6th, Mick Rice in 7th and Maurice Clarke in 9th. When the totals were done our scoring quartet were just able to sneak ahead of a fantastic Craughwell AC team which had claimed both the individual silver and bronze medal positions. Proving once again that the team medals in these races are decided by more than just the scoring members of a team it was ultimately the runs of Athenry runners Adam Stops and John O'Connor that made the final difference to the final team scoring totals. With Athenry AC and Craughwell AC both tied on 26 points each Athenry claimed the top spot by dint of having the higher placed fourth athlete over the line. It was as close a contest as they come.
All athletes who competed yesterday owe a debt of gratitude to the race organisers who were led by County Board Secretary Brendan Monaghan. It was of course a bad day to run but perhaps an even worse day for standing around as a volunteer. All Athenry runners want to express our thanks and gratitude to the volunteers, stewards and scorekeepers who made yesterday's race possible. Without the efforts of these people we wouldn't have had an event to take part in.
Full provisional results attached courtesy of Mike Tobin (Craughwell AC).