my first race was the world youths in germany. The team was selected based on performance in the all ireland mountain running championships where i placed 1st ahead of eoghan totten and michael treacy. I ran a time of 15 mins flat which was the second fastest time out of the people eligible to run in the under 17 categorie. The team was myself jonny phillips and michael treacy, We traveled over on the 26th of June and raced on saturday the 27th. The course was a fast and tough one with most of the pain and suffering being injured in the first 300metres. The irish team made many friends especially the lads and girls on the northern irish team.

The day of the race everybody was relaxing and taking on the fluids for the race. A late start, the race for the boys started at 7 o clock the race was fast and if u did not pace urself right you would suffer in the race, unfortunatly i shot out at the gun and later paid for it as the first killer hill took all the energy outta my legs over the next four laps i slipped back and forwards eventually finishing 30th, altough disapointed with the run that night the race was forgotten about as the irish and the northern irish took over the dance floor at the presentation night. Every1 had a brilliant time we even got a few russians up to dance. The trip was a great expierence.