Hi everyone,

Elliot, Jack, Ethan and I, Cathal, are here to tell you about the amazing work of some of 5^th and 6^th class on the 19^th of March 2024 at SETU sports campus for the Carlow County 2024 primary school relays. There were some amazing results with 3 of the teams of Ballyconnell making it to the finals. So without further ado, let’s hear about the trials and the day itself.

The 14^th of March we had Trials for the Relay Race at SETU sports campus. 8 Boys from 6^th class entered the Race to decide who were on the 2 teams. We did a practice walk of the track before we set off.  The first 4 were Elliot McCarthy, Oisín Townsend, Kian Hutton and Jack Farrell and another team comprised on James Doyle, Aaron Hiney Doyle, Ethan Wilson and Cathal Nolan.

We arrived early to school in our cars and eagerly awatied the bus. We were all hyped up to get on the bus to go the SETU sports campus. We all sat in our seats. It was about a 20-30mins drive we were singing and laughing. When we arrived, Ms Dagg gave us all our own jerseys. We found an area that formed our base for the day. We split into our teams. and finalised teh order we would run in. We all waited for the racing to start. While waiting for the races to start we started to warm up on the grass.

When the races started the 5^th class girls were called and we were all most finished our warm up. For the team I was running in Jack Farrell was started, Oisín Townsend 2^nd, Kian Hutton 3^rd and [me] Elliot McCarthy finished. For the second 6th Class team, Cathal Nolan started, Ethan Wilson 2^nd, Aaron Hiney Doyle 3^rd and James Doyle finished. I am going to talk about both of the 6^th class teams. In the heats the B team were really close but sadly didn’t qualify. Team A came 2^nd with an amazing run overall by everyone. Waiting for the semi-finals you see the quality in the races getting better. But that didn’t deter us and we finished a near 4^th. On the last change over it was a bit chaotic because people were running in all sorts of directions but we made it to the final. We all got ready one last time. It was already an amazing achievement already but we wanted to leave our mark in the first year of competing in this competition. Everyone gave it our all. We ran the best just as we did all day and we finished 6^th place. Tullow Boys N.S won but we were all proud of each other.

Also well done to 5^th class boys and girls team who made into the final and both finished 7^th.

There was a medal ceremony at the end and over all boys and girls 5^th and 6^th class Bennekerry won.

We all had an amazing day. We all performed really well. We had lots of fun.