What an incredible performance from our St. Mary's athletes today in UCD. Our normal location for the annual Cumann na mBunscol athletics championships was moved from Santry to the new UCD track, which worked out wonderfully for us in terms of location!
Our 5th and 6th Class athletes boarded the bus bound for UCD at 9am. Nervous energy and excitement filled the air as we arrived at the track. The day was beautiful and conditions were absolutely perfect for running. The morning kick started with our U12 and U14 sprinters gearing up: Elise and Alex for U12, as well as Ada and Daniel running for our U14s. Competition for the sprints was absolutely fierce and as always, medals were very hard to come by. However, Elise managed to beat 27 other schools to place 1st for the U12 team!
There wasn't much time to celebrate as our u12 athletes were soon called for their 4x100m relay heats. Alex, Sean, Adam MF and Adam S made up our core team, with the fantastic Victor on standby as their sub. Our girls U12 relay team was made up of Alexandra, Olivia, Julia and Elise, with birthday girl Gabby as their sub. Both teams easily got through their heats but were very unlucky not to place in the finals.
Bobby and Zoey were called up next for the U14 600m race. The 600m is for many a very daunting and difficult race. Not for Bobby and Zoey, who raced with fierce gusto and determination. They used all the tactics we had talked about at training and ran a storm. Well done to you both!
Our Race of Champions was up next. Casey, brimming with excitement, toed the line for his sprint. He got off to a fantastic start, powered through the finish line and was awarded a shiny gold medal. Such a wonderful achievement for Casey and for St. Mary's!
The day wrapped up with our U14 relay teams. Jacob, Amir, Conor, Daniel and super sub Stefano made up our boys' U14 team. Their changeovers were seamless and each boy should be commended on an absolutely fantastic race.
Talk about ending the day on a high with our U14 girls' team: Ada, Ava, Lauren, Evie and Zoey. What a performance! The girls won their heat by a country mile and qualified for the final. Their final performance was similar to the heats: Flawless! Their baton changeover was really commendable and Ada ran a very strong final leg to crown them U14 team champions. The excitement from the whole St. Mary's team was absolutely infectious and I'm sure the cheers could be heard from Donnybrook as the girls lifted their trophy.
I wanted to thank each and every child who travelled with us today. You represented our school with distinction and myself, Ms. Allen, Ms. Lynch and Maria were so proud of the level of respect, good sportsmanship and kindness shown by you all. It was nothing short of a pleasure to spend the day with such a committed, enthusiastic and hard-working team. I hope you are all very proud of yourselves!
Ms. Moran
