Senior Titles for Christopher and Angela

Club Titles for Thurles Crokes and Clonmel

The County Senior Road Championships took place in ideal sunny conditions in Moyglass last Sunday last the 13the April 2008. The Blue ribbon event of the Road season attracted top quality athletes and we enjoyed two great races, Men’s 10K and Ladies 5K. In the Senior Men’s race the early pace was set by Stephen Hunter of Clonmel with the chasing pack not far adrift. Then as the athletes negotiated the tough incline to the 2k mark the lead changed a few times. As the athletes approached the 3k mark Christopher Bracken of Thurles Crokes moved into the lead. He maintained a strong pace and soon opened up a good lead which he held all the way to win the Senior title very convincingly in 33 mins 44 secs. This strong running by Christopher saw he set a new course record, beating last year’s time of 34 mins 33 secs set by Shane Mullaney of Moycarkey Coolcroo. Great running by Christopher and well done on achieving the treble this year, winning the County Novice 6k Intermediate 8k and senior 10k. Then we had Danny Smith of Ballynonty coming through to win the Silver medal convincingly in 34 mins 56 secs, great running by Danny who has been running well of late in Cork. The tussle for the Bronze medal was very close with Kenny Curran of Ballynonty proving the stronger to win the Bronze medal in 35 mins 56 secs. He had a close tussle with Stephen Hunter of Clonmel who finished very strongly in 34 mins 59 secs with Donal Keane of Dundrum a close 5^th in 35 mins 1 sec. For the record Tony Fogarty of Thurles Crokes was 6^th in 35 mins 29 secs , 7^th John Shanahan of Dundrum in 35 mins 32 secs, 8^th Shane Mullaney of Thurles Crokes (35 mins 35 secs), 9^th Pat Ryan of Dundrum (35 mins 59 secs), 10^th Martin Keane of Dundrum (36 mins 6 secs0. In the team event it was a very close affair with Dundrum having a very narrow lead going into the last mile. Over the final stages the Thurles Crokes athletes pulled out all the stops to win a very close team competition. In the end they had four points to spare over the reigning Champions for the past three years, Dundrum. The Thurles Crokes team was Christopher, Tony, Shane and Billy Phillips who was 12^th in 36 mins 37 secs, winning the title on 29 points. Dundrum won the Silver medals and their team was Donal, John, Pat and Martin. Clonmel won the Bronze medals on 50 points with Stephen, Richard O Gorman who was 13^th in 36 mins 44 secs, John Walsh who was 16^th in 37 mins 46 secs and Niall O Ceallaigh who was 17^th in 37 mins 53 secs. For the record Ballynonty were 4^th on 52 points with their team of Danny, Kenny, Noel Ryan who was 22^nd in 39 mins 45 secs and Owen Fanning who was 25^th in 40 mins 58 secs. Coolquill were 5^th on 75 points and their team was Ross Alexander who was 11^th in 36 mins 31 secs, Brendan Delaney who was 20^th in 38 mins 11 secs, Dermot Logue who was 21^st in 39 mins 28 secs and Matt Alexander who was 23^rd in 40 mins 20 secs. In the B Section we had a very good competition for Clubs that entered two teams. In the end Dundrum won the Gold medals with their team of Ruaidhri Devitt who was 14^th in 36 mins 49 secs, Michael Moore who was 18^th in 38 mins and John Moore who was 30^th in 44 mins 52 secs, on 62 points. Coolquill won the Silver medals with their team of Tadhg Vaughan who was 24^th in 40 mins 58 secs, Andrew Smyth who was 27^th in 42 mins 35 secs and Andrew Galloway who was 29^th in 43 mins 59 secs, on 80 points. Clonmel won the Bronze medals with their team of Ned O Brien who was 28^th in 43 mins 52 secs, Mark Boland who was 31^st in 45 mins 17 secs and Maurice Boland who was 33^rd in 45 mins 41 secs, on 92 points.

The Ladies race was competitive. Here Angela McCann was trying to emulate Christopher Bracken’s achievement of Novice, Intermediate and Senior titles on the Road in the same season. Angela went about her business right from the start in setting a fast pace. She soon opened up a good lead to come home a very convincing and worthy winner in 19 mins 25 secs. Then we had Aine Roche of Clonmel running very well to win the Silver medal in 19 mins 57 secs. Denise Compton of Dundrum ran very well to win the Bronze medal in 20 mins 18 secs. For the record Kealey Tideswell of Clonmel was 4^th in 20 mins 38 secs with Ashling Hoey of Moycarkey Coolcroo 7^th in 21 mins 37 secs. Mary Keane of Dundrum was 6^th in 22 mins 3 secs with Karen Coughlan of Dundrum 7^th in 22 mins 33 secs. In the team competition Clonmel won the team title on 6 points with their team of Angela, Aine and Kealey. The Dundrum team of Denise, Mary and Karen won the Silver medals on 16 points.

Full Results