For Clonliffe Harriers yesterday’s National cross country championships held at Irvinestown Castle, Co Fermanagh was the proverbial game of two halves. Both the junior men and women’s teams seized the day with the junior men winning the national title, the 1st for the club since 2019 and the junior women took silver, with both teams qualifying now for the European clubs cross country in February. It was however a day of bitter disappointment for the senior men and women’s squads, the men placing 6th and the women 9th.
Earlier in the day the juvenile, even ages, championships took place with the Clonliffe boys U/14 team grabbing team bronze. It was the U/12 girls were 1st in action, all of this team gaining valuable experience in this their 1st national cross country. The team was led home in 59th position by Ava Fagan, the team finishing in 9th place overall: Ava, MUieann Spence 79th, Adrianna Madrzynska 95th and Sarah Thomas 97th making up the scoring 4, next in was Ria Hobbs and Lucy Fagan.
The U/12 boys, also gaining invaluable experience, finished 10th with a team of Isaac O’Neill, 29th, Finn McGurren 44th, Conn Feore 104th and Rhys Jenkins 107th, backed up by Todd Kelly.
It proved to be a great day for the U/14 team with brilliant packing delivering a fine set of bronze medals: Eoghan Thompson 36th, Mark Kelly 37th, Braxton O’Shea 41st and Connor Kenny 47th. The non-scoring members were Sam Steenson and Hayden Kenny. The U/16 boys suffered terrible bad luck as Sean Henry took a tumble at the start with an injury prevented him from continuing any further, this obviously impacted on the team result significantly with the boys ending up in 15th: Eday Blacque 38th, Joshua Chalmers 97th, Fiachra O’Donovan 125th and Cormac Tynan 130th.
With the U/20 women’s team have been strengthened considerably by new additions in recent times hopes were high that this team could make a breakthrough and indeed that proves to be so. Both Emily Bolton and Lorraine O’Connor were up in the lead group for the majority of the 4500m race distance however unfortunately Emily got into difficulty on the final lap and slipped back. Lorraine remained strong and finished an excellent 8th position, Emily held on the 21st, next in, and running possibly her best race yet, was Hazel Kenny in 51st with Goda Buivydyte taking 67th this was enough for the team to take silver and a place on the start line of the European clubs in February. Battling performances by the rest of the girls: Sorcha O’Connor 75th, Isla Duncan 80th, Mya O’Reilly 87th and Hannah Walsh 89th. Lorraine and Emily both took intercounty silver in the Dublin U/20 team Incorporated into the junior race was the U/18 were Lorraine was neck and neck for 3rd position, both athletes were credited with the same time however it was adjudged that Lorraine had finished 4th. The girls U/18 team of Lorraine, Emily, Goda and Isla took team bronze with Lorraine and Emily also taking intercounty silver.
Next up it was the junior men were there were 2 strong Clonliffe teams entered. Ronan Luff impressed on his debut for the club and made an invaluable contribution leading the team home in 11th, with Sean Cronin filling 19th, Tom Breslin 23rd and Matei Ursachi 39th the team took gold. Ronan and Sean were both also on the intercounty Dublin team that won the intercounty title. The B team also put in a very strong shift finishing 10th. The U/18 race the team of Matei, Harry Bogan, Harry Lynam and Aidan Benjacar won national bronze. Matei also bagged national intercounty U/18 gold.
Clonliffe men’s U/20 results:
| 10 | Ronan LUFF | 00:14:16 | 1405 | JNR | Clonliffe Harriers A.C. | |
| 18 | Sean CRONIN | 00:14:27 | 1403 | JNR | Clonliffe Harriers A.C. | |
| 21 | Tom BRESLIN | 00:14:34 | 1401 | JNR | Clonliffe Harriers A.C. | |
| 37 | Matei URSACHI | 00:14:52 | 1412 | U18 | JNR | Clonliffe Harriers A.C. |
| 54 | Lorcan BENJACAR | 00:15:09 | 1399 | JNR | Clonliffe Harriers A.C. | |
| 56 | Cillian KEEGAN | 00:15:13 | 1404 | JNR | Clonliffe Harriers A.C. | |
| 67 | Harry BOGAN | 00:15:27 | 1375 | U18 | JNR | Clonliffe Harriers A.C. |
| 70 | Leon BRADY | 00:15:29 | 1400 | JNR | Clonliffe Harriers A.C. | |
| 72 | Harry LYNAM | 00:15:31 | 1406 | U18 | JNR | Clonliffe Harriers A.C. |
| 105 | Aidan BENJACAR | 00:16:01 | 1398 | U18 | JNR | Clonliffe Harriers A.C. |
| 108 | Devan MORRISSEY | 00:16:05 | 1408 | JNR | Clonliffe Harriers A.C. | |
| 115 | Oran MCGOWAN | 00:16:11 | 1407 | JNR | Clonliffe Harriers A.C. | |
| 118 | Finbarr COUGHLAN | 00:16:20 | 1402 | JNR | Clonliffe Harriers A.C. | |
| 127 | Jack QUINN | 00:16:38 | 1411 | U18 | JNR | Clonliffe Harriers A.C. |
| 128 | Aaron MURRAY | 00:16:42 | 1409 | U18 | JNR | Clonliffe Harriers A.C. |
| 131 | Rory QUILL | 00:16:48 | 1410 | U18 | JNR | Clonliffe Harriers A.C. |
The senior women’s race was the penultimate race of the day, both senior races were held over 7500m. For the Clonliffe senior women proved to be a tough day at the office with the team placing well down the pecking order in 9th position: Yuliya Taravosa 66th, Jools Hughes 67th, Meghan O’Keeffe 74th and Sarah Bateson 79th. The non-scoring team members were: Alanna Burke 85th and Katie Halpin 88th.
Likewise disappointment for the senior men who in reality from the starters gun were never in the running on the team front as all seem to be sluggish getting out of the blocks. Even Efrem Gidey was far back as the 1st lap was concluded but he made a big effort on the 2nd, the 1st of the 2000 laps and actually hit the front, that effort hurt his chances later on as he slipped back but rallied again over the final lap to take 4th place, 3rd senior and (presumably) a place on the Irish team for the European cross-country. The Clonliffe team ended the day in 6th position with a scoring 4 of Efrem, Sean O’Leary 32nd, Colm Rooney 37th and Ian Guiden 50th. Efrem, Sean and Colm all took intercounty gold in the Dublin team. It must be acknowledged of course that everyone of the 16 Clonliffe men gave it everything they had on the day – it was unfortunately just one of those days. Nil desperandum.
Clonliffe senior men’s results:
| 4 | Efrem GIDEY | 00:23:40 | 1776 | Clonliffe Harriers A.C. | |
| 32 | Sean O’LEARY | 00:25:02 | 1787 | Clonliffe Harriers A.C. | |
| 37 | Colm ROONEY | 00:25:10 | 1774 | Clonliffe Harriers A.C. | |
| 50 | Ian GUIDEN | 00:25:26 | 1779 | Clonliffe Harriers A.C. | |
| 54 | Mahad Mohamed EGAAL | 00:25:37 | 1781 | U23 | Clonliffe Harriers A.C. |
| 61 | Fintan KERINS | 00:25:52 | 1778 | Clonliffe Harriers A.C. | |
| 66 | Stephen CASHIN | 00:25:57 | 1789 | Clonliffe Harriers A.C. | |
| 74 | Sergiu CIOBANU | 00:26:10 | 1788 | Clonliffe Harriers A.C. | |
| 89 | Sean DORAN | 00:26:41 | 1785 | Clonliffe Harriers A.C. | |
| 107 | Sean CARRIGG | 00:27:12 | 1784 | Clonliffe Harriers A.C. | |
| 109 | Daragh CARTER | 00:27:18 | 1775 | U23 | Clonliffe Harriers A.C. |
| 120 | Mark MCDONALD | 00:27:42 | 1782 | Clonliffe Harriers A.C. | |
| 129 | Thomas SHERLOCK | 00:28:00 | 1790 | Clonliffe Harriers A.C. | |
| 130 | Eoin MAGUIRE | 00:28:00 | 1777 | Clonliffe Harriers A.C. | |
| 145 | Jack WOODS | 00:28:38 | 1780 | U23 | Clonliffe Harriers A.C. |
| 178 | Niall SHERLOCK | 00:30:17 | 1783 | Clonliffe Harriers A.C. |
