Rachel strikes gold in NI cross-country championships

Wednesday 22nd February saw the Final of the province-wide Primary School Cross County League take place in exceptionally heavy, muddy conditions at Mallusk Playing Fields, Belfast.

Glenravel Primary School, in their first year of entry, had both girls and boys teams qualified for the final.

Weeks of training and preparation led by school principal Charlie Bonner came to climax on Wednesday morning. Maeve Kyle who had visited the school to help with preparations and talk to the children had come to support the teams and the children were inspired by the thought of the 3 times Olympian being there to watch them.

The girls’ race got underway at 11.30am in very wet and heavy conditions with 175 girls taking part.

All the Glenravel girls got stuck in with some good steady performances especially young Trasa Scanlon who finished 50th in a time of 7min 16 sec. Trasa who is in P6 will have another chance to run next year. This performance will be of great experience for 2013 where she should be among the top finishers.

Maria McKenna finished 80th in 7 min 40 sec, Caoimhe McKeown finished 91st in 7 min 49 sec, followed closely by Maggie Dillon, Shauna McDonnell and Anna Fyfe. Again, Maria, Maggie and Shauna are all P6 and eligible to run next year.

Top performance of the day was once again that of Rachel Brown who seemed completely unfazed by the mud as she led from start to finish in an excellent time of 5min 39 sec - this equalled the top finishing time of the boys’ race. Rachel finished the league undefeated having previously won all 3 qualifying rounds.

Rachel, who can add this to the many medals she has collected this season, is looking in fine shape for the track season which is about to start.

The boys’ race was next with 13th place going to young Sean McCusker another P6 in a very good time of 6min 8 sec.

Sean has showed steady improvement throughout all the races and is another good prospect for a top place in next year’s competition.

Sean was followed home by Eoin Hynds P7 in 22nd place in a time of 6min 14 sec, Sean Mckay P7 in 59th place in 6min 41 sec, Eoin McCusker P7 in 79th place in 6min 59sec, Cathal Hynds, Darragh Donaghy, Sean Higgins and Thomas O’Kane all P6 also did well to finish in the tough conditions.

All the children have benefited greatly from this experience and hopefully will be inspired to stay involved in athletics. Many post primary schools take part in cross country and these children will have a head start in competing for their next school.

Glenravel Primary School would like to thank and congratulate the sponsors of the cross country league – Flahavan’s, without whom this type of event would not take place and primary school children would not be able to participate.

Flahavan’s were very generous with a goodie bag for all children who took part and Rachel was supplied with a very impressive hamper filled with all the products manufactured by Flahavan’s.

Special thanks also to NI Athletics for all the hard work and encouragement to all children taking part and last but not least to Maeve Kyle from Ballymena and Antrim Athletic Club for her help and encouragement.