Having performed at his highest level yet for the season and achieving a championship best performance in the Leinster championships, a record that stood for 20 years, Neil Culhane of Ace attended the SIAB Track and Field on Saturday as Irish boys team captain.
The Irish team travelled over early Friday morning and returned late Saturday night. Such an honour for this young man who has worked tirelessly all year long unsurprisingly put in a serious fight in his 800m among some of the strongest athletes from England Scotland Wales and Ireland.
Having stayed with the leaders from the gun Culhane gave a superb performance in a closely packed race and finished in 6th place in 1.55.60 directly behind his teammate Cian Gorham of St Peter’s AC who finished in 5th in 1.55.20.
It didn’t stop there for Culhane who was also chosen to be part of the boys 4x400m relay team where each of them left nothing on the course, the Irish went home with bronze.
To even make it to this level is an enormous achievement and one which is undoubtedly only the start for Neil Culhane.
Some of the younger Ace athletes only too eager for the Cross Country season to begin travelled to Palace Demense Armagh on Sunday to attend the TJ McElmeel Cup.
Chloe Cooney returned with the all too familiar fire in her belly staying in the lead for her 1500m and took gold. Eimear Cooney, much more comfortable to the longer distance also had a fantastic performance with a very strong finish on the very hilly terrain finishing 3rd.
Lorcan Forde Dunne remained strong from the start in his U15 3000m race finishing in 2nd with Rhys Clarke also having an impressive performance running out of age.
Tadhg Forde Dunne also ran very well in his U13 1500m amongst some very tough competition.
Although a challenging course the Ace athletes as usual did not disappoint.
