Carraig Na BhFear AC Athletes Soar: Triumphs on Trails and Tarmac

by Richard Hawkins

As the year draws to a close there was still plenty of action on road and off-road with lots of our athletes putting in excellent performances. The final races of the Munster cross-country took place in Ennis on Sunday 8th. The Walsh family made the trip west for the Juvenile ‘B’ competition with the lads running very well. Aidan and Liam finished in 48th and 55th places respectively in a competitive U11 race. Cathal finished the year in style, running up in age U13 placing 16th overall and was 4th scorer on the gold medal-winning Cork team.

The first of the schools’ cross-country races, the South Munster secondary schools challenge took place last Friday in Riverstick. Caraig Na BhFear AC athletes showed their experience picking up plenty of medals. In the minor girls race the top 20 girls were awarded medals, well done to Emma Johnson (Scoil Mhuire) 5th, Hannah Coffey (St.Angelas) 11th and Allie Phillips (St.Angelas) 14th. Good performances also from Amelia O’Donovan, Lily O’Keefe, Rebecca McCarthy and Aoibhe Dunlea (Colaiste an Chroi Naofa). Anna Mullins (St.Angelas) medalled in the Junior girls race finishing in 14th place overall. The final girls race of the day was the 4th/5th/6th year race. Congratulations to Caoimhe Gray-Walsh (Loreto Fermoy) who capped off the year taking the gold medal!

One of the most popular road races of the year was held on Sunday, the Dulhallow AC 5K in Newmarket. Traditionally a PB course, the sold-out race attracts many elite athletes from around the country. A dry day but a challenging headwind for the first 3 kilometres was an added complication but our athletes would not be denied their opportunity for PB’s. Timmy Hawkins and Aidan Maher had been knocking on the door of sub-16 minutes for some time and broke through in style running 15:49 and 15:57 respectively, congratulations on this major achievement! Brian Hawkins broke through the 17-minute barrier running 16:55 followed closely by Tadhg Crowley in 17:00. Peter Hawkins ran a pb time of 17:29, more to come from Peter who is bouncing back well from a recent injury. Richard Hawkins ran a solid 19:46 before two of the youngest competitors in the race, Isabel Browne and Edie-Mae Browne ran sensational sub-24 times of 23:46 and 23:51 respectively. Very well done to all our athletes who featured prominently in the results.

Other news: 

Allie Philips followed her cross-country on Friday with a 13th place overall finish in the Tramore Valley Parkrun on Saturday with a time of 22:19.

Look Forward: 

Best of luck to Aoife, Anna and Robyn who will compete in the World Athletics Tour Bronze Level event in St. Annes Park, Raheny, Dublin next Sunday 15th.