Athletics Leinster “B” XC & Juvenile Mixed XC Relays 2024 (24th Feb)
The Athletics Leinster “B” Cross Country and Juvenile Mixed Cross Country Relays took place in a cold but dry and bright Stradbally Hall in Co. Laois on Saturday 24th February, a venue better known for the Electric Picnic Music Festival in September. This was the second year of the event and numbers competing were up on last year, so it’s an event that is growing and among the competitors was a number from Mullingar Harriers.
The “B” races were confined to those that didn’t win an individual, club or county team medal in Leinster cross country last autumn, so given Mullingar’s success in Leinster cross country, most from the Club were ineligible to compete but we still had athletes in five of the eight races on the programme. The mixed relays of two girls and two boys per team were open to everyone, so we really should have had teams in every event, but we only had one team entered.
The day started with the relays and in the 4x250m u/13 Mixed Relay, Amelie Kelly, Joel Kelly, Liadan Gavin and Oisin Clarke combined really well, keeping in contention throughout and despite everyone giving every ounce of effort they were very unlucky to finish in 4th place, just out of the medals in a close race to the finish but top marks for effort and team work.
Seeing Lyla Lennon Currill racing hard all the way to the end and finishing well up in the u/11 girls 1,000m, followed in quickly by Roisin Keane and Aoife Dunne not far behind her and Laura Buckley having a great race too and providing the vital fourth score for the team, it was no surprise that the team finished in the medals, 3rd Club, only a few points off the silver medals, so a great team performance from these young girls.
Amelie Kelly led the Mullingar girls home in the u/13 girls 1,500m with a fine run and with great support from Liadan Gavin and Muirin Dunne it’s a terrible pity we didn’t have a fourth girl, as the team would definitely have finished third Club, possibly even challenging for second, but they can still be very proud of their performances.
Having run the mixed relay earlier in the day, Oisin Clarke and Joel Kelly took to the start line of the u/13 boys 1,500m. Oisin kept right up with the leading group from the start and consolidated his position in the medal places over the last 500m to come home with a fast finish in 11th place to win an individual medal. Also running very well and finishing strongly too, Joel can be very satisfied with his efforts.
Lisa O’Brien was our sole representative in the u/15 girls 2,500m where she put in a very strong performance and was very unlucky to finish just of the top-12 medal places but has to be very satisfied with her performance. We finished the day back in the medals again courtesy of Lydia McDonnell who stuck to her task in the u/17 girls 3,000m and was rewarded for her efforts with an excellent 6th place finish and a well-deserved individual Leinster medal [GD].
