After the brilliant Clonliffe juvenile club Championships it was time for the seniors. Once again the senior race incorporated both men and women, running over 6000m, 4 laps of an excellent course laid out in Santry Park, thanks to Fingal, master men, running the same distance, and master women and both U/20 men and women running 3 laps.
The field gathered to the start at 11 AM and were quickly set on their way. The lap took in part of the old traditional cross country course ‘down the gully’, and then swung left hugging the Santry River, taking in the walled garden, in fact the only place where there was mud, despite the incessant overnight rain, before eventually running through the beautiful ‘tree-lined avenue’, the traditional finishing straight, although again this year the ‘finish straight’ was incorporated into the lap.
The field was initially led out by Sean O’Leary, easily spotted not only because of his height but because of the bright orange Clonliffe T-shirt standing out amongst the club vests! In the pack was defending champion Colm Rooney, Ben Guiden, Mahad Egaal and Sergiu Ciobanu, a most welcomed competitor in the club Championships. The clutch of U/20 athletes were also bedding in at this stage led by Matei Ursachi and Tom Breslin.
The women’s field in the opening lap was headed by those very enthusiastic U/20 athletes, master Jenny Johnston and Alannah Cooley the lead senior.
The U/20s finished after 3 laps with Matei Ursachi well clear of Tom Breslin with Rory Quill taking 3rd. The U/20 women was a closer affair, Sophie Kernan ran a fine race to take 1st with Ayana O’Callaghan 2nd and Aisling Kehoe 3rd. Jenny Johnston was almost 2 minutes clear in the masters category to regain the Masters title that she won 2 years back, Rachel Eustace took 2nd with Maura Matthews 3rd.
As the senior race race went on, things settled in, Colm Rooney and Ben Guiden ran shoulder to shoulder at the head of proceedings and indeed remains together until the final run in when Colm unleashed the Rooney kick to retain his club cross country title a second or so ahead of Ben. Sean O’Leary maintained his 3rd position, a fine run in the race was also by Malcom Kiplagat who ran a most mature race finished very strongly over the final lap.
Alannah Cooley was an equally dominant winner of the senior women’s race with a winning margin of the best part of a minute ahead of Julie Larkin 2nd and showing a return to form Sarah Bateson took 3rd.
In the master men with the Boy Rooney taking the win in the senior category it was Sergiu Ciobanu who took the Masters title ahead of the usual battling suspects: Cathal McHale 2nd and 3 seconds later Karl Nolan 3rd.
The prize-giving for the seniors took place in the clubhouse and finished just in time for a smooth handover to Greg Allen in Tokyo as the Clonliffe contingent cheered on Kate O’Connor to Ireland’s silver medal at the world Championships.
Results:
A fantastic day all round.
Link to photos: https://www.flickr.com/photos/146364500@N04/albums/72177720329170769/