Tullamore's Danielle leads Leinster team to All-Ireland victory

Danielle Donegan proved at the All-Ireland (Uneven Age) Cross Country championships in The Curragh that she is one of the brightest prospects that Offaly has seen in recent years. Not only does she have the raw talent, but added to this she has an acute sense of racing tactics and the true grit that champions are made of. She finished third individually on Saturday and this amazing run from her meant that she led the Leinster team to victory in the All-Ireland Championships. Girls Under-11 Having finished second in Leinster over the mile distance, Danielle was the sole Tullamore qualifier in this age division. A third of the way into the race the pace began to settle and Danielle was in roughly 20th place and just getting into her running. Within 200 yards she had passed another ten athletes and now she began to work her way past others. She did this with surprising ease and with 500 yards left, she was brave enough to take the leaders by surprise and surged past them. Only briefly in the lead, Danielle sprinted her heart out to get to the line in third. She was first home from a Leinster team which relied on her stellar performance for a two-point victory over a quality Munster squad. Boys Under-11 Brian Todd finished 49th in this his first All Ireland XC Championships. Considering there were over 100 athletes behind him, he should be very proud of his fine run. He started strongly and then held on to his good position throughout the race. Boys Under-13 Eoin Mulligan and his brother Ciaran led the challenge for Tullamore in this age grade. The duo showed well early on and continued to fight all the way over the 2.5km distance. They along with Chinnie Izuchukwu, Mark Milner and Christopher Whittle should be proud of their seventh place team finish. Girls Under-15 Since coming home second in the Leinster XC a month ago Cara has been through the mill a bit with a vomiting bug and chest infection but still she won an All-Ireland silver medal last Sunday by being a scorer on the Leinster team. The whole team were slow to get going and with 500 metres gone, Cara was trying to pick her way towards the front. Over the two miles that followed she got herself up to a 14th place finish which, all things considered, was a fine performance. Nadine Donegan, Emily Grennan, Keelin Guilfoyle, Emma Horan, Michelle Keegan and Ciara Galvin made up the team and, right to the finishing line, each girl could be seen trying their hearts out. The team did great to finish seventh, less than forty points off medals. Boys Under-15 Chinnie Izuchukwu has matured into a fine athlete in the last couple of years and his run last Sunday has showed that he has improved considerably over the last month. Chinnie only really got started training in this period and can be satisfied that things are moving in the right direction. Chinnie led home the boys by coming home 26th in a race where well over 100 finished. He was one place off an All-Ireland gold medal as he, like Eoin Mulligan, was just outside being part of the Leinster team. He was joined on the start line by Sean Rigney, Glenn Cunningham, Connor Butler and Matthew Molloy (Barry Mooney was out sick) and the boys tried all the way round the 3.5km course. Girls Under-17 Nicole Cuskelly has definitely turned a corner after her early season indifferent form. She followed up a credible 16th place finish in Sligo two weeks ago with an even better run over 4.5kms last Sunday. After a kilometre she was in 22nd and with some determined running, Nicole fought her way passed the opposition to get up to 13th place by the finish line. With schools cross country competition after Christmas, Nicole is coming into form at just the right time. Eileen Rafter and Sinead Rigney fought all the way and their runs meant that they finished 37th and 46th respectively. Both girls have competed well over the cross country season and now can look forward to being a lot stronger with the Indoor season about to begin. Aoife Dempsey made a comeback to the club colours after a lay-off of 18 months as the club's team was short due to illness. The club is very grateful to Aoife and hope to see her back as a regular fixture at club outings. Boys Under-17 The team that had qualified was decimated by injury and illness but still two members, Joe Gilligan and Diarmuid O'Carroll, laced up ready to compete over the 5km distance. Joe was with the lead group early on and ran bravely to stick with what was a fierce pace being pushed along by Mullingar's Shane Fitzsimons and Dunleer's Aaron O'Hanlon. Diarmuid is only recently backed from illness and he made the wise decision to start off conservatively and to work himself gradually into the race. Joe went through a bad patch after three kilometres with chest pains but rallied later on to come home in a credible 45th. Not bad for a first All Ireland experience. Diarmuid had passed a couple of dozen athletes by the finish line. Christmas party All club juvenile members are asked to take note that the annual Christmas party this year takes place on Tuesday 20th December, with the group meeting outside the cinema at 6.30pm.