Once again the club had a great turnout of athletes for these championships with seven ladies and six men taking to the start line of their respective races.
The ladies were part of a huge field of 41 athletes in their race and it was Louise and Angela Fogarty who pushed the pace for the club athletes and resulted in both finishing in the top ten. Louise was our leading lady finishing 8th overall in a time of 16.38 but was pushed hard by her cousin Angela who finished very strongly in 9th in 16.41. Brigid Gleeson ran a very competitive race to finish 13th in 17.39 with Susan Fogarty not far behind in 16th in a time of 18.06. Aisling Maher had a very solid run for 24th in 19.47 with Ber Spillane 27th in 20.20 and Catherine Dunne 28th in 20.25. With three to score on a team the race for the prizes was very close with only five points separating the top three teams. The girls (Louise, Angela, Brigid), despite a great performance from all, wound up the bronze medallists on 30pts. Moreabbey Milers won on 25pts with Clonmel second on 29pts such was the closeness of the competition. Susan, Aisling and Ber finished 7th in the same competition.
Another great field of 60 athletes took part in the men’s race and again the standard was huge with some very talented runners in the field. Leading the club team home was debutant Stephen Flanagan who finished an excellent 14th overall in 21.48 followed a minute later by Richie Daly 25th in 22.47. Paddy Doyle finished 26th in 22.57 while Patrick Bowe finished 37th in 24.07. Next home was Jodie Sweeney 42nd in 24.31 followed by Brian Carroll 46th in 24.51. The men finished 5th in the team competition on 102pts, one of their best performance and they can now look forward with some confidence to the “B” competition in November.