Ben Thistlewood won the AAI Novice Cross Country Championship and led the Leevale team to Gold.
In a cold and windy Santry, Ben ran a tactically superb race, biding his time, running as part of the leading group until 700m to go when he kicked a open up a clear lead, which he held to the finish. Leevale have never won the Novice men’s team, so when Ben Thistlewood, Eric Curran, Owen Casey & Anthony Mannix won the team event coach Donie Walsh was incredibly proud.
The girls U19 team had a superb day, winning the team event; Meave Ahern 4th, Louise Shanahan 6th, Karen Twomey 14th & Edith Finn were the winning team. Meave, Louise & Karen made it a clean sweep when they were members of the County & Munster Teams which also won gold. Just to top off great performances, Meave & Louise received international selections for Celtic Cross Country.
Luke Horgan finished 10th in the BU19 race, scoring on the Munster team which won gold. Luke also received international selection for the Celtic Cross Country in January.
In the BU17 race, Charlie O’Donovan, Martin Keohane & Alvaro Cubillo were all members of the Cork County team which won bronze.
Leevale’s BU13 were unfortunate not to medal; they were joint 3rd on points but were awarded 4th based on count back. There was some consolation for Tommy Connolly who scored on the winning Cork team.
