Rachel runs to more cross-country success

The Martinstown girl stormed to victory in the NEBBSA cross-country event at the University of Ulster Coleraine.

Running for her school, Ballymena Academy, Rachel won the girls’ race in a time of five minutes, 59 seconds, finishing around 200 metres ahead of her nearest competitor.

Rachel’s performance also helped the Year 8 Ballymena Academy girls team to also take first place.

Her success follows on from another recent triumph when she added another medal to her collection when she ran a fantastic race at the Juvenile Cross Championships in Adamstown, County Wexford.

The dry weather conditions coupled with the challenging course made for almost perfect conditions underfoot which provided some very exciting racing throughout the day.

Rachel had an exceptional run in the U13 Girls Race to finish 9th from a huge starting line-up of 175 girls. This earned Rachel her first All-Ireland Individual Medal at Cross Country and will take pride of place beside the Provincial Team medal she won last year for Ulster. Cross country is a particular difficult and challenging endurance sport to excel at and this is reflected by Athletics Ireland when the first 12 finishers are rewarded with an individual medal.

Rachel has been in great form this year and is growing in confidence from each race all adding to valuable experience for the future.