St Malachy's enjoyed a successful day at a cold, blustery and showery Mallusk. Three teams won medals and now qualify for the All Ireland Championships in Kildare on Saturday 7th of March.
The highlight of the day undoubtedly came when the Senior Boys successfully retained the title that they had won last year. Paddy Robb fought a brave battle throughout the race for the individual title, however eventually had to settle for a well-earned silver medal. He was backed up by James Smyth, who moved through the field well to finish 7th. Chris Connolly rallied on the last lap to finish 13th and Eoin Maguire finished the scoring quartet in 29th. Connor McCann and Lorcan McClean finished 46th and 55th respectively.
The Junior Boys (Year 10) performed well to earn silver medals behind the All-Ireland Champions in their age group, St. Colman's, Newry. Cormac O' Rourke led the team with an excellent individual bronze medal performance and Conal Browne fought hard to finish 12th on his return from a nasty chest infection. Tim Scott continues to demonstrate his progress this season finishing inside the top twenty in 14th. Sean Og Gallagher (40th) completed the Matteo Lavorca (45th), Thomas Reid (50th) and Conall McClean (69th) all ran well, proving the depth in this team.
The Minor Boys (Year 9) produced a third medal winning team performance with their third place finish. Adam Ferris followed his district win with a superb 5th place and Lewis McGarvey performed well in 19th. Niall O'Connor was disappointed with 33rd, which Mr McAlister notes ‘was a fine performance after recent illness’. Emmet Maguire overcame a fall and a cut to his leg, pulling himself up and finishing 51st, thus helping the team to qualify for the All-Ireland Championships. Mark Donnelly (66th), Fionn McQuillan (68th), Sean McBride (83rd) and Michael Hegney (125th) all competed well.
Mr McAlister was impressed with the Mini Boys (Year 8) who, in their first event at this level, ‘coped well with the standard of competition’. He went on to explain how ‘they all fought hard, just narrowly missing out on a team medal in 4th place’. Callum Morgan led the team with his 12th place finish and Ruairi Gallagher chased him home in 18th. Daniel McComiskey and Fionntan Campbell completed the scorers in 35th and 52nd respectively. They were finely supported by Conor O'Neill (71st), Daragh Gorman (87th), Ben O'Reilly (93rd) and Jack Maguire (111th) who all show tremendously promise in this category.
Cormac O'Rourke (U16) and Adam Ferris (U14) were rewarded for their fantastic performances with selection for their respective NI Schools’ Team for the London Mini Marathon in April. They will have the opportunity to compete against the best runners from across the UK in a unique event that takes place over the last three miles of the London Marathon.
We wish all our athletes and their coaches the very best with all upcoming events.