Nov 13, 2011 [Noel Guiden] A good morning`s work from the Clonliffe under age teams at Marlay Park saw the U/19s take team gold and U/15s team bronze, and two individual gold medals from Joseph Hession in the U/13s and Ian Guiden in the U/19s.
Another bright day with warm early Winter sunshine welcomed all to the southside of the city for the Dunlin Juvenile uneven ages cross country championships. As expected underfoot conditions were perfect, however, the lap in Marlay Park is testing to say the least featuring several long uphills which sapped the strength, and into the bargain the athletes enjoyed a stiff head on breeze on each of the up hills.
The first of the black and amber clad in action were are two U/13 girls both of whom ran the race of their lives as Amy McGrath finished 11th with Sophie Higgins 12th and were rewarded by winning Dublin Bronze medals. A great start to the day. Next up were the U/13 boys who were clearly inspired by the girls performances. From the off Joseph Hession, who had had such a good run in last weeks Dublin U/14, was up there sitting nicely in second place. Joseph ran a most mature race as he waiting patiently leaving his trade mark kick until the end to power away with 100 to go and win his biggest race today: Dublin champion. Second scorer was Keith Hodson in 17th, young Keelan Twomey also ran well stepping up a year to finish 19th with Luke Guy 22nd and with the sprint of the day Darren Lawler 33rd.
The U/15 girls faced a daunting 3,500m around Marlay, but rose to the challenged with a particularily fine run by Laura Tuite in 10th, to take her first Dublin cross country medal, followed by a very brave Alanah Cooley, stepping up a year, in 23rd, Sally Aherne one place behind in 24th and Kate Hession 28th.
Next up the U/15 boys and again some truely excellent runs. At the sharp end Cathal Doyle ran a very solid 6th, also winning his first Dublin cross country medal. Some great packing then from the next three Clonliffe lads, David O`Hanlon 15th, Paddy O`Hanlon 16th and an impressive Brian Flanagan 18th propelled the team into bronze position. Great runs also by Dylan Gibbons 22nd and Sean Carrick 25th.
Although it was a pity than there wasn`t a full team in the U/17 boys race, the three guys did run very well over the 4,500m. Liam Ashton was 4th with a stirring final 75m`s to pick up two places on the line, John Buckley a strong 11th with Ryan Cleary 13th. Another scorrer and no doubt the team would have medalled.
Finally the U/19s running 7,000m. It was a great sight to see three Clonliffe vests in the lead bunch over the early laps with Johnny Bradley Ward, Ian Guiden and Fintan Doherty looking nice and comfortable. Around half way JBW slipped back a bit but Ian and Fintan were well bedded in. As the race hit 2 laps to go the lead pack was down to three and then with one to go Ian made his move quickly opening a gap on the uphill and then driving forward to win by a good margain and take the Dublin U/19 title to add to his U/18 from two weeks back. Fintan Doherty place 5th after a long race for an 800m man, JBW was 13th, Eoin McCullough 14th and Mark Ring 16th. The performance of the guys being rewarded with team gold.
So another great Dublin Championship from our athletes who now look forward to the National inter counties in Sligo in two weeks time. Well done all.