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County Athletic Notes
Christopher wins Gold, Mary wins Bronze medals
The Turnpike was the venue last Sunday for the Munster Novice
Cross Country Championships for both Ladies and man. The men competed over 3
laps in the 6k race while the ladies negotiated 3K in demanding conditions.
Well done to the Moycarkey Coolcroo Club and in particular Donal Hayes and his
family for organising a great course.
In the Men’s race which also incorporated the under 23
Championships Christopher Bracken of Thurles Crokes opened his Cross Country
season with a strong performance. Always in the leading group Christy kept the
strong tempo going when finishing 2nd overall to claim the Munster under 23 title
in convincing fashion. With this performance under his belt he is bound to
improve as he sets his sights on the under 23 All Ireland Championships in
Tramore at the end of November. Then we
had his club mate Shane Mullaney running well in demanding conditions to finish
strongly in 8th place. Shane was well positioned throughout the
race. Then we had Pat Ryan of Dundrum opening his Cross Country season with a
very good performance. Pat started off steadily and as the race progressed Pat
improved and only the closing lap made up a lot of ground to finish strongly in
9th place. Then we had Danny
Smith of Ballynonty also running a great race when running well to finish 17th.
Then we had Stephen hunter making his Munster Cross Country debut a very good
one. Stephen put in a great performance to finish in 20th. Then we
had another man making his seasonal Cross Country debut and that was Martin
Keane of Dundrum. Martin ran well improving as the race progressed and I have
no doubt that as the season progresses Martin will improve. This group of
athletes performed very well when winning the Inter County Silver medals,
beaten for the Gold by the Waterford team by five points, still some very
good performances. Other County athletes that performed well included Thomas
Hayes of Moycarkey Coolcroo who ran a great race over very familiar territory
and surprised many with this performance when finishing 27th, John Shanahan of Dundrum who was 29th,
Ruaidhri Devitt of Dundrum 33rd, Declan Doherty of Thurles Crokes 34th,
Michael Moore of Dundrum 36th, Donal Keane of Dundrum 39th,
Denis Shanahan of Thurles Crokes 41st, Liam Butler of Dundrum 47th,
Jim McDonnell of Coolquill 51st, Ned o brien
of Clonmel 52nd and Maurice Boland of Clonmel 53rd. For
the record the Dundrum team of Pat Ryan, Martin Keane, John Shanahan and
Ruaidhri Devitt were 4th Club on 94 points, the bronze medals were
won with 81 points. The Thurles Crokes team of Shane Mullaney, Tony Fogarty,
Declan Doherty and Denis Shanahan were 5th Club on 104 points.
In the Ladies race the County was very well represented.
Angela McCann of Clonmel who has won the County Novice and Intermediate over
the past two weekends put in another
sterling performance when matching strides with the best in Munster. She was
always well positioned throughout the race and put in a brilliant performance
when finishing 4th. Then we had Catherine Kelly making her seasonal Cross County debut and showed great determination
when finishing strongly in 8th place. She was closely followed
across the line by the Clonmel duo of Aine Roche and Laura Taylor who ran very
well when finishing 9th and 10th respectively. This quartet combined
very well to win the Inter County Bronze medals. Mary Keane of Dundrum also ran
very well when finishing 19th overall and in the process won the
Under 23 Bronze medal with this fine performance. She was closely followed
across the line by Catherine Rice of Clonmel who ran very well when finishing
20th. Catherine along with Angela McCann, Aine Roche and Laura
Taylor combined to win the Inter Club Silver medals, great performances. Other
athletes that performed very well over demanding conditions. For the Ladies the
conditions were demanding as theirs was the last race and the course was well
cut up by their race. We had Ashling Hoey of Moycarkey Coolcroo running very
well to finish 21st followed by Sareen Walsh of Clonmel 22nd,
Maria Walsh of Clonmel 24th, Denise Compton of Dundrum making her
seasonal debut in 25th place, Donna Nagel of Clonmel who was 29th,
Miriam Crone of Moyne who was 31st, Ashling Maher of Moyne was 33rd,
Mairead O Connor of Dundrum was 34th, Rosemary Cleere of Moyne who
was 35th, Liz power of Moyne who was 36th and Olivia
Hayes of Dundrum who was 37th. For the record Dundrum were 4th
club on 86 points with Moyne 5th on 135 points.
County Junior and Senior Cross Country
These Championships will take place on Sunday 2nd
of November in the Ballingarry village and promoted by Coolquill Athletic Club.
This is a first for these Championships to be held in Ballingarry and i have no doubt that Leslie and Tadgh
will have everything right for what should be a great day’s racing. I will do a
review of these Blue ribbon
Championships events next week
Dublin City Marathon
I would like to wish all our athletes from the County who are
competing in the Dublin City Marathon all the very best. |