History was in the making on Sunday when the Novice Ladies team, backboned by an incredible nine ladies, captured the County title for the first time since the formation of the AAI. The ladies have been the senior stalwarts of the club in recent years but this title has eluded them thus far, Sunday changed all that. Lorraine Healy set out at a pace matched only by two other athletes. She continued to push hard to lead and to be in second at various stages throughout the race and as a result of this effort she finished an excellent 3rd overall in a time of 16.20. Her younger sister Orla was having an equally great race and finished 7th in 17.29 while Louise and Susan Fogarty pushed for home to finish 9th and 10th respectively in 17.47 and 17.50. Kate Harrison was our next finished in 16th place in a time of 18.35 with Brigid Gleeson coming through the field to finish 18th in 18.53 closely followed by Sharon Kiely in 19th in 19.02. Sharon Cantwell completed the course in 27th in 20.23 with Catherine Dunne 28th in 23.30. This was great running by all nine ladies and it was with great anticipation that they waited for the result of the team competition to be announced. The joy was plain to see on all their faces when it was revealed that they had won the County Novice team title on a score of 19pts with Lorraine, Orla and Louise the scoring trio on this historic day for the club. Susan, Kate and Brigid finished 4th in the club section while the two Sharon’s and Catherine came 6th. The nine ladies made their own piece of history on Sunday and each of them was instrumental in achieving this famous victory.
While our ladies were celebrating their victory our men were in the throes of their 6k race and five members of the club donned the green and gold on the day. Stephen Flanagan was always up with the early leaders, despite the frantic nature of the race, and continued to post an impressive result of 9th overall in 21.30. Liam Kelly was our next finisher in 16th place being timed at 22.34 with Jody Sweeney and Richard Daly always within sight of each other to finish 23rd and 24th in times of 23.32 and 23.35 with our final athlete on the day Patrick Bowe finishing an excellent 30th overall in 24.32. As always the men’s novice event is so competitive with over 50 competitors and for the lads to produce the results above shows their commitment and dedication. They combined to finish 5th in the team competition on a score of 72pts and are now poised to make a huge effort in the Novice “B” later in the season.
