Aug 16, 2008 [Noel Guiden] Clonliffe Kenyan Josphat Boit made it three wins out of three on the roads. Hot on the heels of wins in Carlingford and Galway Josphat took the Frank Duffy Dublin 10 Mile Championship in Dublin`s Phoenix Park this morning.Race conditions were far from ideal with high winds and humidity, however, the athletes can thank their lucky stars for the early start as this afternoon`s four hour downpour would have had them looking for boats at the rowing clubs !
Josphat had things far from his own way as Raheny man Vinnie Mulvey really put it up to him matching him stride for stride. It was only in the final heart stopping sprint finish that Josphat look safe in clocking up his third road race success winning in a time of 49.22 with Vinnie only four seconds in arrears. Excellent performance from both men particularily taking the conditions into account.
Afterwards, Josphat, normally a 5,000m runner with a PB of some 13.16, confessed that he had found the longer race distance somewhat troubling : “That`s the longest distance I`ve ran competitively so I did find it a bit challenging 5K is definitely my preferred race !”
A good run also form Sergiu Turea who was racing back in the capital for the first time in several months after his move down South. Sergiu coming home third in 50.54.
Our third scorer was Michael McDiarmada in 12th recording a time of 54.54. Unfortunately not quite good enough to take the team title which was won by Raheny Shamrocks.
Other Clonliffe results spotted on the official results: 36th Declan Power 57.55, 43rd Niall Sherlock 58.37, 52nd Ronan Hartnett 59.32, his first race in a while, over a distance 16 miles too short as well. Conor Delaney is starting to show good form again and is well over his early season injury recording a time of 62.09 in 81st. Ernie Ramsey was next Clonliffe man in placing 116th (63.39). In 199th was Fergal Hartnett 66.53, clearly only getting back to training again after injury. Paul Duggan ran 67.47 while Paul Carolan will be disappointed with his 69.41, not a fair reflection at all on his current form.