The young cross country athletes of St Michael’s added another layer to their reputation as one of the most talented and successful groups in this most gruelling of sports, when winning a first ever All Ireland age group title, in a cold and sunny Gowran Park in Kilkenny on Sunday afternoon, and for good measure adding a National county silver medal behind Dublin.

Over the years, the Fermanagh lads have accumulated four Irish schools titles but have rarely focused on the pre Christmas age group events, but, with the uncertainties created by the Covid pandemic, this season was an opportunity to avail of every race opportunity and this talented bunch of young men seized the moment to deliver a comprehensive victory in the U15 age group, to go with their U16 national bronze medals from Santry two weeks ago.

The team was led home by the multi talented Sean Corry who missed the individual podium by a few metres after leaving his finishing effort just a little too late but had the consolation of taking home no fewer than four National medals for the second consecutive race; individual, club, county and provincial, as he led his team to gold. Young Corry is a gifted Gaelic footballer and soccer player and a hugely modest and coachable athlete who should have a bright future in whatever code he ultimately focuses on.

Also prominent near the front of the almost 200 strong field throughout the 3500m trip around an excellent multi terrain course were Tiarnan McManus and Conor Mulligan. Both possibly felt they had performance slightly below par in Santry and this time they were always in contention, rarely separated by more than a few metres throughout the race, eventually finishing 21st and 22nd.

The always crucial fourth and final scoring place was filled by Daithi Mohan who has improved beyond recognition in the last few months to finish an excellent 38th and close out a comprehensive victory, with a fine Mullingar Harriers squad, who had won the equivalent U13 event two years ago, taking silver and Ennis Track Club winning bronze.

The battle for inter county medals, with six to score, was a tight three way tussle between Fermanagh, Dublin and Cork who had world champion Rob Heffernan in their corner and the Erne county’s sextet was completed by Charlie Reihill, continuing his comeback from Covid, and a batting Josh Hamill who literally ran himself to a standstill to secure silver in the county battle just a handful of points behind the metropolitans and a similarly narrow margin ahead of the Leesiders, but interestingly well ahead of the Donegal team who had beaten them in Ulster.

The Fermanagh team was completed by Conall Rasdale, Max Murphy, Tom McMahon and James Tierney with Murphy and McMahon picking up their first National medals, while the other two added to their growing collection of Irish medals having capture schools gold in 2020 and U13 silver in 2019.

A very youthful St Michael’s U17 team, almost all of them U16, had done well to qualify for the national finals, having finished second in Ulster, and they battled well and were always competitive over a tough 5000m, lead by Frank Buchanan, with the rapidly improving Daniel Curran next to finish ahead of Cillian and Patrick Sprice.

The fast finishing Cillian Whitford just edged ahead of Ciaran Cullen and Adam Cox in the closing stages and post Christmas as they are divided between the intermediate and senior schools events all of this squad can look forward to more provincial and National successes.

Kate Kelly representing Ulster in the U11 girls was Fermanagh’s other representative in Gowran Park and she had a fabulous run in 19th place in a massive field and can doubtless look forward to future success as her running career develops.

This was an excellently organised championships, blessed as it was with the weather, and the young athletes involved can hopefully look forward to schools competition in the spring, for the first time since March 2020.