Aidan Bailey added the Club 800M Championship last night to the 1500M Championship he had claimed the previous Thursday.
There was once again a wonderful turnout for the Club Championship held on the 28th of June resulting in three separate races being held.
The A Race featured both Mark Kenneally and Aidan Bailey, both of course members of the victorious Men’s Senior National Cross Country Championship winning team, as well as guest Darragh Greene and of course a batch of Clonliffe’s very promising Juniors. As the race developed the field split into two separate groups and were led out by guest runner Greene through the bell in some 55 seconds. Over the final lap a gap developed between the front three and fourth place man Conor Healy and coming down the straight Darragh Greenecame home first in 1:51.3 and in the Clonliffe Club Championship there was a great battle for the line with Aidan Bailey just getting his head in front of Mark Kenneally over the final couple of strides to take the 800M Club Championship in 1:53.9 from Mark Kenneally in 1:54.1.
Mark McDonald came very close to the 2 minute barrier recording 2:00.7.
In the B Race, again there was a four man breakaway at the end of the first lap, lead out by Philip O’Doherty from Aidan Creaner and Adam Ahern withStephen Harkness, the favourite to take this race with not only his youth, but his finishing speed and that proved to be crucial as he ran a superb final 150 to win in 2:09 from Philip O’Doherty in 2:11.3 and Aidan Creaner third in 2:12.1.
The C Race featured a field of thirteen athletes and once again there was a great battle for victory in which Jeremy Walsh prevailed in 2:16 from Gavin Redmond in 2:16.9 and Paul Breslin in 2:18.
The Lady’s Club Championship featured five athletes, the field was strung out somewhat more in this particular race and was led from start to finish bySarah Finnegan, recording a time of 2:25.5 from Catriona Cassidy in 2:30.7 with Ashley Lynch on 2:35.
The full result of the Club 800M Championships were as follows:
Men’s A Race:
1. Darragh Green (Guest) 1:51.3
2. Aidan Bailey 1:53.9
3. Mark Kenneally 1:54.1
4. Conor Healy 1:59.8
5. Mark McDonald 2:00.7
6. Owen McDonnell 2:08.3
7. Daragh Boylan 2:09.5
8. Paul Boylan 2:22.8
Men’s B Race:
1.Stephen Harkness 2:09
2. Philip O’Doherty 2:11.3
3. Aidan Creaner 2:12.1
4. Adam Ahern 2:13.3
5. Louise Reilly (Guest) 2:17.5
6. Declan Moran 2:22.8
7. David Brennan 2:23.1
8. Brian Gallagher 2:25.5
Men’s C Race:
1.Jeremy Walsh 2:16
2. Gavin Redmond 2:16.9
3. Paul Breslin 2:18
4. Martin Tully 2:19.9
5. Owen Cleary 2:26
6. Colm Doran 2:27.5
7. Maurice McCronin 2:28.6
8. Richard Connolly 2:36.6
9. Ciaran Murphy 2:13.9
10. Terry Mee (Guest) 2:37.1
11. Jim Bennett 2:38.1
12. Pat Devitt 2:41.9
13. Pat Healy 2:41.1
Lady’s Championship:
1.Sarah Finnegan 2:28.5
2. Catriona Cassidy 2:30.7
3. Ashley Lynch 2:35
4. Denise Walsh 2:40.4
5. Denise Kelly 2:48.5.
The next Club Championship Race is the 5000M, to be held in conjunction with Round 8 of the Grand Prix Series, on Thursday the 14th of July at 8.00 p.m.