Bandon Athletic club hosted a primary schools cross county event on Friday September 25th on the Bandon Rugby club grounds. The rugby club is an ideal venue for this competition with the course run over 4 very well maintained pitches. The club started this event around 6 years ago to provide an opportunity for the local Bandon primary schools to get taste of what cross country running is like and also to promote participation in physical activity. Back then we started with around 300 primary school children running and having now extended the invitation to include primary schools in the wider Bandon AC catchments area we had nearly 900 children competing last Friday which was fantastic site to see. Running conditions were perfect with just a clear blue sky to contend with.

The club would like to acknowledge the participation and team spirit for all those pupils who competed on Friday. There were some excellent individual running performances but praise needs to go to all those who ran. It was great to see that everyone who started actually finished encouraged on by the uplifting cheers and support provided from everyone in attendance.

Thanks to the schools for supporting this event and to the help we received on the day especially from our some of our juvenile athletes who gave up their free time to help.

Finally a special thanks to Bandon Rugby club for the continued use of their excellent facilities.

We look forward to the 2016 primary schools cross country event.

Report by Tom Laffan