What an end to the road season for the club – individual gold, silver and bronze, team gold, silver and bronze and personal bests. Each and every athlete, and there was 17, who competed on Sunday in Dundrum should be very proud for putting in such efforts over the various distances and competitions.
The Junior 3k race saw five young men face the starter with Jack Moore claiming the title of County Junior Champion following a gun to tape victory in 10.26. Harry Hogan kept Jack on his toes with a very solid run for second place in 10.36 with Nathan Bowe running very strongly to finish third in 10.43. Fourth place went to Niall Moore who again had a very sound run finishing in 11.03 while Eamonn Troy finished in sixth place in 11.40 again after a good solid run. The club were clear winners of the team event on 6pts with Jack, Harry and Nathan the scoring trio. What a pity for Niall and Eamonn that we hadn’t a third member as they would also have secured team medals.
The ladies raced over 5k and again it was Lorraine Healy who proved to be best of the eight club athletes in action. Lorraine finished an excellent 5th overall in a time of 20.24 leaving many more experienced athletes in her wake. Susan Fogarty earned a top ten position for herself when finishing 9th overall in 20.47 while Brigid Gleeson ran on very well to finish 15th overall in 21.46. Edel Leahy, making a welcome return to competitive action, finished 23rd in a time of 23.20 followed by Ber Spillane 26th in 24.36 and Sharon Cantwell 27th in 24.42. Sinead McLoughlin making her debut at this level finished 29th in 25.14 followed by Catherine Dunne 31st in 26.06. When the team competition was announced it was great to see the ladies capture the silver medals with Lorraine, Susan and Brigid combining to finish on 29pts. The “B” competition is for clubs who have more than one team and again the club featured with Edel, Ber and Sharon securing the bronze medals on a score of 76pts. What a great return from the ladies.
Our men raced over 10k and again all athletes produced the goods. Stephen Flanagan has been very consistent over the season and Sunday was no exception finishing 26th overall in 37.25. Richard Daly came through to take 29th place in a personal best time of 38.21 with Brian Carroll and Patrick Bowe hot on each other’s heels in 40th and 41st place and this drove them both on to achieve new personal bests with times of 40.33 and 40.35 respectively. As always the team competition is so competitive but the four men should be very proud of their achievements in finishing 5th club overall at this level.
Well done to each of the 17 athletes who kept the club colours flying. It was a fitting tribute to them all to see the club and indeed personal successes at this level on Sunday.
