Thankfully the Dublin intermediate and masters cross country championships proceeded this morning/afternoon on a bitterly cold, wet and muddy St Anne’s Park. With Dublin avoiding the feared snow drop the championships were given the go-ahead early this morning. It proved to be a fantastic day for the Clonliffe athletes, the highlight coming in the opening race as the intermediate women took a thoroughly deserved team gold and the 2nd highlight coming in the last race of the day, the master men’s M/35+ as Colin Rooney was a class apart in the ankle deep mud to take Dublin individual Masters gold.
It was the intermediate women who are first into the fray, the squad has been targeting this intermediate race for some time and were completely focused on the job ahead. Straight from the starters gun it was clear that the girls meant business as Helena Butterly hit the front before the 1st bend with Niamh Kelly settling in her wake and indeed Chloe Heaslip showing at this early stage. As the race wore on both Helena and Niamh consolidated their 1st and 2nd positions, indeed on the 2nd and final 1500 lap Helena opened the gap even further. The team however was involved in a battle royale with Crusaders for the team title, and the title was only secured up the final hill as Meghan O’Keeffe split the Crusaders AC four woman pack, to take 5th place and likewise Julie Larkin made a huge effort up this hill taking 2 positions as she took 12th. This proved crucial as these scoring four had a combined total of 20 points, a winning margin of a mere 1 point over Crusaders, proving once again the time honoured mantra ‘every place counts’ true. The scoring 4 were well backed up by the rest of the team: Katie Halpin 17th, Jess Laflamme Yonkman 18th, Aisling Killelea 23rd and Chloe Heaslip 24th. A brilliant performance by the team, individual gold and silver and team gold.
Next up was the intermediate men, running 6000m, the team was weakened slightly by a couple of late withdrawals but the lads rolled up their sleeves and really got stuck in. Jack Woods was running a fine race in 4th position but unfortunately he had an issue which almost put an end to his race but despite being in considerable discomfort he hung on gamely to finish. In fairness Donore Harriers were unbeatable on the day finishing with points total of only 13, however the Clonliffe guys stuck to the task being were led home by Evan Lynch in 8th, Dymtro Moyseyev was 2 places behind in 10th, an excellent run then by Ronan Donohue in 11th and Harry Davies in 13th delivered super silver. Jack Woods hung on for 15th position, next in was Eoin Keating 19th, Greg Hossenny 20th, Ryan Sheridan 25th and Ben Power took 47th.
The first of the Masters races was the combined W50 plus and M65 race over 3000m, with the weather conditions now worsening as the rain was now lashing down and the course gradually turning into pretty much a mud bath. In this combined race 2 sets of team bronze medals were delivered as the W50 team of Aimee Ahern 9th, Orla Deighnan 20th and Anne Lyons 27th took bronze, the non-scoring members of the team were: Susan Kelly 58th, Janette Reid 60th and Evelyn Brennan 69th. In the M65 the scoring trio of Diarmuid Doyle 4th, Declan Murray 12th and Pat Devitt 15th also took team bronze. Individually Pat Devitt won M70 silver.
The Clonliffe M50 team finished just out of the team medals in 4th position. Individually Kevin O’Connor ran a brilliant race overall to finish 2nd M50, David Dunwoody was 3rd M55 and Philip O’Doherty 2nd M60, (Philip was beaten by a margin of a single second!) Overall the finishing positions for the team: Kevin O’Connor 2nd, David Dunwoody 19th, Brian O’Reilly 20th, Philip O’Doherty 30th, Fergal O’Shea 53rd, Colm McDonnell 72nd, Tom Monks 77th, Niall Markey 82nd and Alan Worrall 86th.
The Clonliffe W35 team were led home by women’s Captain Jenny Johnston in 15th position, next in was Cindy Hickey 18th, Ciara Peelo 32nd and Sinead McDermott 38th, with the team placing in 6th position. The other team positions were: Sarah Sharkey 51st, Laura Kernan 59th, Clodagh Moriarty 66th, Clare Roach 69th, Paula Horgan 72nd, Pamela Kavanagh 76th, Michelle Waters 79th, Mel Curran 91st. Individually Jenny Johnston came closest to taking an individual medal placing 4th in the W35 category.
The final race on the card was the men’s M35 plus race, it was an absolute mud bath by this stage. Colm Rooney however made light of the conditions, as almost kamikaze style he tore down the hills into the sharp bends gliding across the mud, Colm’s lead grew dramatically as the race progressed over 6000 distance and at the conclusion of proceedings he had a massive lead of the best part of a minute to take the Dublin Masters title. Karl Nolan was next in finishing 9th, in 10th was Cathal McHale and Tom Sherlock 12th for a combined total of 32 points with Rathfarnham were well clear with a 20 points total, the team took silver. The rest of the squad: Anto Doran, gave the entire field a headstart, was 27th, Niall Sherlock 28th, Mick McMahon 51st, Ray Dunne 54th, Peter ‘the younger’ Bissett 65th, Phil O’Doherty 78th and Eoin Rafter 117th. Individually medals were taken by the guys: Cathal McHale M35 gold, Tom Sherlock M35 bronze, Colm Rooney M40 gold.
In the battle for the Masters overall Pat Hooper Cup hosts Raheny Shamrocks prevailed by 3 points ahead of Clonliffe.
So a fine start to the year for the cross country athletes. Next up is the national intermediate and masters championships taking place in Westport on 9 February.
Photos: https://www.flickr.com/photos/146364500@N04/albums/72177720322979410