Flahavan's Primary School Cross Country

The kids from St. Patrick’s arrived in Dungannon ready to race in the 3rd and final qualifying round of the Flahavan's Ulster Cross Country League. Eskra raced in the Tyrone/Fermanagh district, with only the top 3 teams qualifying for the Ulster Final.

Our Girls' and Boys' Teams knew they would have to run their best races to qualify for the Final, as they were competing for a qualifying place against some huge primary schools. Our fun runners were up first over the 1km course. The weather was favourable but the course was tough, with a massive hill thrown in midway through the race. Conor crossed the line first for Eskra in 27th place, closely followed by Mattie 34th, with Una and Noah 44th and 45th respectively. Emer and Tori paced it perfectly together finishing 57th and 58th. Out of 110 runners, all of the Eskra racers finished in the top half of the race!

Our Girls' Team were up next, knowing that qualifying was all to play for. Holding her own in the highly competitive front pack was Alannah, finishing 6th. The next 3 scorers who worked as a team to cross the line were Freya 17th, Clídna 22nd and Shannon 25th. Anna-Kate and Carly, only in P5, made sure the ladies' team scored as high as possible on the day. When the scores were calculated, our Girls' Team took 3rd place on the day! Third place out of 15 schools! Well done, girls!

Finally our boys took to the line, knowing that a full team performance was required to secure a place in the Ulster Final. Our boys were all business and determined from the starting gun. In a fast and furious race the Eskra team got out of the starting pens expertly. They worked together to execute the perfect team race. Oisin 8th, Cormac 10th, Ben 15th, Thomas 17th, Peadar 23rd and Jack 28th. With 100 runners in the race and all of the Eskra boys finishing in the top third, their hard training in recent weeks was clearly on display. A strong team performance, the Boys' Team thoroughly deserved second place on the day. Second place out of 16 schools!

Well done to all the boys and girls who have competed with eagerness over 3 rounds in all weather conditions. A special well done to our P6 and P5 runners competing against mainly P7s from other schools. These races will gain our young runners valuable race experience for future years. We await confirmation from NI Athletics (following their calculations of the two best point scores across three rounds), as to the schools and the individuals would have secured an Ulster Final place. A special Thank You to Mrs. Tracey Scullion for preparing the children and for her guidance and encouragement throughout the day. A big thank you to Mrs. Mulligan and Mrs. Shevlin who travelled with the children and kept them safe all day. It was wonderful to see all the parents and supporters travelling to Dungannon to cheer the teams on.