Laois athletes play their part in impressive World Youth Cup display by Ireland

IRELAND boasted strong performances by all of their representatives at last Saturday’s World Under-18 Youth Cup Mountain Running Championships in Donovaly, Slovakia, with the boys’ team finishing up eighth overall and the girls emerging 12th.

Five of the eight athletes representing the country at the 2025 competition are from Laois, Riley Connelly, Sean McAuliffe and sisters Siobhán and Áine O’Loughlin flying the flag for St Michael’s Athletic Club, while Katlyn Reddin did likewise for Portlaoise AC.

“It was a tough route with a steep climb after 100m,” recalled St Michael’s AC coach, Owen Connolly after Saturday’s race in Slovakia. “They were on open mountain for most of the race and had three good climbs with a really tough one towards the end.”.

With three to score on a team, Finn Yore from Cork led home the boys in eighth place, while Connolly was the second of the Irish in 29th, before McAuliffe and another Cork athlete, Fionn Buckley finished up 41st and 54th respectively.

In the girls contest, Reddin was the first across the line for Ireland in 34th, followed by Siobhán and Áine O’Loughlin in 47th and 50th respectively, while Faye O'Riordan from Cork was just one place further back.

It was an impressive display by the entire squad who had worked hard in their preparation for this year’s World Youth Cup and had qualified through a very tough national team trial that was run in more than 22-degree heat on a tough 6.7km course, that included a 600m climb to the summit of Slievenamon and a fast 500m descent to the finish.

And competing against some of the top youth international mountain running athletes is another great experience that will serve well the Laois contingent, all of whom had previously represented Ireland in the British and Irish Mountain Running Championships.