At the great BUPA Ireland 10K Run held in the Phoenix Park on Sunday the 9th of April Clonliffe’s Mark Kenneally was in inspirational form taking on Aussie Craig Mottram for 7K of the event, ultimately finishing 2nd in a fabulous 29:17 leaving Mark Carroll 2 seconds in his wake, along with other seasoned internationals Lebid of the Ukraine, Petrovic of Croatia and Shabunin of Russia.
There was a record entry in the Phoenix Park event of some 7,500 runners. The elites featured not only Mark Kenneally but also Killian Lonergan and our two men quickly established themselves in the lead bunch. After a couple of kilometres however Mottram took the lead from Mark Carroll and Mark Kenneally. As the pace picked up Mark Carroll began to struggle slightly and after 6 K’s Mark Kenneally took on Mottram to push the pace. It was wonderful to watch on television and to hear the great Brendan Foster enthuse about Mark Kenneally of the “famous Clonliffe Harriers” performance. Mottram however took command at 7K pulling away to win in a time of 28:51. There was a great battle then for 2nd place in which our man Mark prevailed to record a time of 29:17, two seconds ahead of Mark Carroll. Afterwards Mark said:
“My running has been going really well of late. I won the Ras na hEireann race in America a few weeks ago and then last Sunday I ran the fastest 5K leg in the Raheny Road Relays. I was still a little surprised but delighted at how well I ran here today. I hope my form continues and that I can qualify to run in the 5,000 or 10,000M in the European Track & Field Championships this summer.”
Killian recorded a time of in the order of 30:30 (according to our spies in the park).
Other Clonliffe times were Kieran Murphy 38:26 and Declan Murray 38:39. Undoubtedly there were other Clonliffe athletes in the field. Presumably the full result will be on the race organisers web site.