The Cavan Senior Cross Country Championship was held on a cold, frosty morning on Sunday, 11th of December, on the pitch and putt course behind the track in Shercock. The Ladies 5k race was the first event and Lisa Clerkin from Shercock AC took an early lead and gradually increased that lead over the second part of the race, ahead of Anne Hand from East Breffni AC and Denise Colman from Shercock AC. Lisa maintained her pace and won convincingly to collect the gold medal and the Arlene Smith Senior Women’s Cup for 2022. In the race for second place Anne Hand held on to take second place with Denise Colman taking third. The Shercock ladies’ team of Lisa Clerkin, Denise Colman, Siobhan Smith and Caron McDermott finished strong to win the team event.
The men’s race was over the longer distance of 10k. John Whelan from Shercock AC went out hard from the start and opened up a gap on the rest of the field. Michael Reilly from Shercock AC and Aodhagan O’Reilly from Annalee tried to stay with the pace for the opening laps, but John pulled away on the up hills to take his first senior men’s cross country title. The battle for second place was very close between Michael and Aodhagan. Over the last few laps Michael pulled away to hold on to second with Aodhagan coming in third. The newest club in the county, East Breffni AC, were out in force in the men’s race and won the team event. They were led home by Brian McCarey who finished fourth overall.
Well done to Brian O’Reilly from Laragh AC who competed in the senior men’s race, this was Brian’s 40th time running the Cavan Senior Cross Country. Brian won this race on numerous occasions in the past.
