County Senior team wins National Gold medals.

The National Cross-Country Championships, Juvenile and Senior, took place last Sunday at the picturesque Castle Irvine Estate in County Fermanagh. Rain greeted the athletes on their arrival at the venue but by the time the first race got underway at 11.30am, the rain had cleared, and weather wise it was ideal for both athlete and spectator. The underfoot conditions were greasy in parts of what was an undulating course, hilly in parts, making it a great testing course. The 7.5km course the Senior and Under 23 races for both women and men was a 1500m lap followed by three laps of 2k.

Anne Marie McGlynn, the National Marathon Champion won the senior women’s race, and she becomes the first women to win both titles in the same year. The county had two athletes competing and it was a pity that we could not enter a county team. Still both athletes ran very well with Ciara O Neill of Clonmel AC running very well when finishing 23^rd in 29 mins 3 secs and her clubmate Laura Cooney finishing 49^th in 30 mins 36 secs. Laura was also competing under 23 where she was 16^th.

The Men’s race was won very impressively by the pre-race favourite Keelan Kilrehill of Moy Valley AC. Here the County athletes performed very well. None more so that Sean Tobin Clonmel AC. In the initial stages of the race Sean paced himself well in the mid-teens, then as the race unfolded, he gradually worked his way up through the field. Going out on the final lap he was in 5^th place and leading the chase to catch the leading group. He maintained that strong pace to finish 5^th in 23 mins 41 secs. It is great to see Sean back running well again. At this stage, the rest of the County team were responding well, with David Mansfield Clonmel AC 31^st in 24 mins 55 secs, Daniel Ryan Ellis Nenagh Olympic 38^th in 25 mins 13secs, Luke Purcell of Nenagh Olympic 58^th in 25 mins 42 secs. Sergiu Ciobanu Clonliffe Harriers 74^th in 26 mins 10 secs, Kevin Moore Mullingar Harriers 76^th in 26 mins 13 secs, Jamie Moloney Nenagh Olympic 79^th in 26 mins 2 secs, Cathal Kennedy Thurles Crokes 98^th in 26 mins 55 secs, Conor Flaherty Clonmel AC 105^th in 27 mins 8 secs, Darragh O’Leary Thurles Crokes 111^th in 27 mins 20 secs Caolán Curran Thurles Crokes 112^th in 27 mins 20 secs and William Hughes Thurles Crokes 123^rd in 27 mins 51 secs. The County team of Sean, David, Daniel, Luke, Sergiu and Kevin combined very well to win the gold medals in the B Section, improving well on last years silver in the same section in Gowran. Last year’s team consisted of Sean Tobin, Sergiu Ciobanu, William Maunsell, Kevin Moore, Emmet McNamara and Louis Rice. It is great to see this year’s team a mix of youth and experienced athletes, augurs well for the future.

At the Inter Club level congrats to the Thurles Crokes quartet of Cathal, Daragh, Caolan and William for winning the silver medals in the C section. A link to this team was the Thurles Crokes team of 1986 when in Santry their team of Tommy Moloney, Sean Hughes, William’s father, Patrick Heffernan and Joe Tobin won the gold medals in the B Section and were the first club in the County to do so.

Earlier in the day the Junior Men’s race took place and here we had Cian Hodgins of Nenagh Olympic running a great race when finishing 9^th in 14 mins 10 secs with his clubmate Diarmuid Moloney 14^th in 14 mins 22 secs, having been up in the leading group earlier in the race. There were also good performances from other Nenagh Olympic athletes like Kevin Finn 38^th in 14 mins 51 secs, Daire O Donnell 99^th 15 mins 44 secs, Ben Walshe 109^th in 15 mins 50 secs and Ruairi Walsh 202^nd in 19 mins 3 secs.

Munster Master Cross Country Championships

The Munster Masters Cross Country Championships takes place next Sunday 24^th November at Middlepiece. These Championships for both women and men over 35 are always well supported by the clubs in the County and so we should have some great races in all the various age categories.