At the end of September the Boys' Gaelic Football Team combined with the boys from Aughlisnafin Primary School to participate in the Canon Esler All County Primary Schools Football Championship. This is a competition we have won and have performed very well in over the recent past but this year we ran into some very strong opposition. The games we won were by slender margins and the games we lost were also very tight affairs. The boys all performed very well and had a great day in glorious sunshine at Kilcoo GFC.
Next up was the Northern Ireland Athletics Primary Schools Cross Country Race at Henry Jones Playing Fields in Castlereagh. A School Squad of eighteen P6 and P7 boys and girls gave up many of their break-times for three weeks preceding the event to train with Mr Knight in a wet football field. This was great preparation because the course proved to be very wet and muddy on the actual day. There were huge numbers participating and a few runners took a tumble including our own wee flyer Quinn Devlin. He picked himself up very quickly, brushed himself down and stormed around to finish in a very credable fourth place (4m 45sec). Aaron O'Boyle still only in P6 ran a brilliant race to come in just behind Quinn (4m 48sec). Next in were the Grue brothers, Dylan (5m 21sec) and Finlay (5m 32sec) with John Leneghan and Joseph Grainger only seconds behind. The Boys' team were a very commendable 7th out of 13 schools.
The Girls' Team have to take some extra credit for finishing in fourth overall out of thirteen schools. Niamh Lowry had a great run to finish fifth(5m 08sec). Ellena Gribben (5min 34sec) , Matilda Harty (5min 41sec) and Sophie Gribben(5min 51sec) all had brilliant runs. The girls were all well bunched and in a group just behind were Kaylee Toner and Ella Eckersley.
In the first race of the day Noah Rooney had a great determined run taking over runners the whole way round. If the race had been longer he may well have got to the front. Patrick Flanigan despite a few slips and slides had a great run chased by Eoin McKay and some very fast girls in Katie Cotton and Ava Scannell.
It was a great day and very much enjoyed by everyone. It may have been muddy under foot but the sky was blue and the smiles were wide. Bring on the next race in Donard park in December. We will have to keep training hard and hopefully we will do just as well.
