Junior Women 2km 1pm

Tekea Gebrezgi (Celtic DCH)
Gebrezgi comes into Ballyfin Junior-Cross ’09 on the back of a very impressive run at the World Mountain Running Championships where she finished in 15th position. Prior to this she had impressive runs on the track with the highlight being a silver medal at the Irish schools championships over 3000m. She was 7th at last year’s inter-counties and a slight step up this year could see her in line for a place on the Irish team when the European Championships come to Santry in December.

Eimear Black (Ballymena and Antrim)
Having finished 43rd in the 2007 edition of the European Cross Country Championships, Black will be hoping to regain her spot on the Irish team for this year’s event in Santry. She took silver in this year’s Irish Schools cross country championships and finished 4th in the schools international. She was also a member of the Irish team for the Celtic Cup indoor meet and came out of the indoor season with an impressive 1500m time of 4:37.87. Injury forced her to miss the track season but she is well on the road to recovery and should be in contention for the top spot at Ballyfin Junior-Cross ’09.

Joanne Mills (Lagan Valley)
Mills ended her spring cross country season with a silver medal in the Irish schools intermediate championships. She brought her good form to the track with her, claiming gold medals over 3000m at the Irish Schools championships and also the national u18 championships. She took silver in last year’s national u17 cross country championships and is one to watch for this season.

Eva Laverty (Lagan Valley)
Laverty will probably be one of the youngest athletes at Ballyfin Junior-Cross ’09 but nonetheless has a fine running résumé. She finished the spring cross country season in fine form with a bronze medal at the Irish Schools intermediate championships and a 20th place finish at the SIAB international. On the track, she took bronze in the Mile event at the Irish schools championships. In last year’s national juvenile cross country she took bronze at u15 level and went one better to take silver in the u16 race.

Ciara Everard (Kilkenny City Harriers)
Everard is the reigning national junior indoor and outdoor 800m champion as well as being the runner up over 400m outdoor. She is ranked 6th in the country over 800m with a time of 2:06.43 and 9th 400m with 56.58. She is number 2 on this year’s junior lists in both events. Ballyfin Junior-Cross ’09 will be a step up in distance for Everard but she did finish 10th in last year’s Inter-counties over 4km so she has experience at the longer distances also.

Mary Mulhare (North Laois)
Mary is the reigning All-Ireland u16 and u17 cross country champion from last year and also took the schools intermediate title earlier this year. Showing her talents aren’t confined to the country, she also took gold in the Irish Schools intermediate 1500m and the Tailteann Games 1500m before finishing 4th in the schools international.

Catherina Mullen (Shercock)
Catherina took bronze over 3000m indoor and outdoor in National Junior Championships this year with her indoor time of 10:27.44 (ranked 15th nationally) turning a few heads. On the country she was 4th in this year’s intermediate Irish schools championships as well as 3rd (u18) and 4th (u17) place finishes in last year’s All-Ireland championships.

Mary-Ann O’Sullivan (Tinryland)
Mary-Ann is current All-Ireland u17 champion over 1500m as well as runner-up at 800m. She finished 6th at this year’s Irish Schools cross country championships which qualified her for the SIAB international where she finished 23rd. She also finished 3rd in last year’s u16 All-Ireland championships.