The County Novice Road Championships took place on Sunday last in Clonmel with the club featuring teams in the ladies and mens competitions. Indeed such was the commitment of our athletes that four ladies teams and two mens teams were possible on the day and without doubt this was the most representation the club has had at any senior competition since the formation of the AAI. Success breathes success and following on from the influx of juvenile athletes in the past year this seems to have rubbed off on our seniors and hopefully Sunday was the start of something big in the club. Our thanks to all the athletes who competed and to John Flynn and Damien McDonnell for their encouragement, persuasive powers and commitment to the athletes.
The ladies race was run over 3k and of the 33 athletes competing, the club had 13. This was a very competitive event and leading the Moyne charge home was Edel Leahy who finished 6th overall in 12.26. Bridget Gleeson followed on from her fine run in the relays last weekend by finishing 8th in a time of 13.03 with Frances Long completing this team finishing 12th in 13.25. These three ladies finished an excellent 3rd club in the team competition and such was the closeness of the event that they tied with Clonmel for 2nd but by virtue of the third scorer from Clonmel finishing 10th to Frances in 12th they were deemed the winners of the silver medals. Sarah Healy finished just behind Frances in 13th in 13.32 followed by Aisling Maher in 19th in 14.05 with Breda McNamara getting the better of Rosie Cleere for 21st in 14.20 with Rosie 22nd in 14.26. Liz Power was next to finish in 24th in 15.02 with Catherine Dunne hot on her heels in 25th in a time of 15.05. Sharon Kiely finished 29th in 16.44 closely followed by Olivia Quinlan 30th in 16.48, Eileen Ryan 31st in 16.53 and Evelyn Cornally 32nd in 17.02. In all a total of 10 teams took part with our second team finishing 6th, our third team 8th and our fourth team 10th. Very well done to all involved.
The mens race over 6k had 73 competitors with 9 members of the club in action. Jody Sweeney led them home in 27th in a time of 22.34. He was followed home by Richard Daly in 35th in 23.36 with Damien McDonnell just yards behind in 36th with a time of 23.39. Thomas Moore in 54th in 25.21 was followed home by Paddy Doyle in 56th in 26.03. JJ Fitzgerald finished 59th in 6.29 while Patrick Bowe, in his first competitive event, finished 60th in 26.35 just yards ahead of Ray Power in 61st in 26.37 while Seamus Concagh again in his first competitive event finished 67th in 28.31. As with the ladies event the team competition was very competitive but our two club teams did excellently to finish 9th and 14th overall. Again well done to all involved.
The next event for all of the above athletes is the County Intermediate Road Championships to be held on Sunday 3rd March in Two-Mile-Borris. The distances will be slightly longer with the ladies over 4k and the mens over 8k.
