March 17th: It was a fantastic morning for Clonliffe Harriers at the Tallaght AC’s Saint Patrick’s Day 5K held in the Saint Patrick’s Day traditional freezing cold. There was a great turnout of 30 Clonliffe athletes across the whole spectrum from the juvenile girls up to novice, senior and masters for both men and women for the race which incorporated the Dublin 5K Road novice Championships.
Ben Guiden took his first open road race win in some style with a gun to tape performance winning in 15.09, a winning margin of over 20 seconds. Making it a Clonliffe double was Helena Butterly with an equally dominant performance to win the women’s race, and 27th overall, in a PB of 16.54.
Both Ben and Helena lead the men and women’s teams to fine team victories. The scoring 4 in the men’s open race were Ben, Lee Duddy, Sean Doran and Stephen Lyons and in the women’s Helena, Julie Larkin, Aoife O’Reilly and Jenny Johnston.
Making it a superb day for the club in the Dublin novice championship the Clonliffe men’s team took team gold, with Lee Duddy picking up individual gold after an excellent run to 4th position with an almost 30 second PB of 15.46 and the novice women’s team claimed team bronze. The winning men’s novice team was Lee Duddy, Stephen Lyons, Robert Mackey and James Murphy. The bronze women’s novice team was Aoife O’Reilly, Jenny Johnston, Ailbhe Morgan and Jess Laflamme Yonkman.
Excellent runs from the entire Clonliffe contingent, the juvenile girls in particular, all running their first open 5K, impressed greatly. It was heartwarming on such a cold morning to see so many black and amber vest.
Also today Lorcan Benjacar finished 3rd in the Letterkenny road mile in a time of 4.13.
At the Streets of Portlaoise 5K Kara Phelan 23.51 and Mullingar Half Marathon Meadhbh O’Sullivan 1:47.24.