Limerick primary schools gearing up for the return of cross country racing in the county

PRIMARY SCHOOL cross country is returning to Limerick this Thursday at South Liberties GAA with festivities getting under way at 10AM. 

This will involve 9 schools and over 150 children.

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The competition has made its return with special thanks to Niall Shanahan, a teacher at Knockea National School, who has spear-headed the return of the competition.

"We decided to set it up to encourage children, there is obviously a lot of focus on GAA, soccer and rugby in schools and there are kids in schools who aren't necessarily interested in those sports and they might be interested in athletics if they are given the chance to see what it is like so yeah it's just to give children the chance to experience that.

It would be great for all the schools in Limerick to take on the initiative of maybe approaching their local GAA club and them to try and get other schools in the local area involved and take part in a cross country meet," he said.

"We are starting out in South Liberties GAA this week but our hope is that next year we could have a finals day, with a certain amount of schools taking part in the competition, with that day hopefully being held in somewhere like the University of Limerick. 

For this year, we're just trying to get the word out there that we have started it up and we are trying to get as many schools as possible on board and then next year to try and have that finals day. There's huge interest, a lot of schools have been in contact with me already," he added.          

"As I was saying, the goal is to just spread the word this year and then from next year, we'd hope to grow and to put it out there that there is a cross country for primary schools in Limerick every year, to give the children that chance," Niall concluded.