It was a fine outing to Kilbeggan Racecourse, Co. Westmeath for today’s Dublin cross country which had been incorporated into the Leinster cross country, for the Clonliffe contingent. Kilbeggan was an outstanding venue for the event, despite incessant rain for the past fortnight the course was in superb condition, with brilliant running and, believe it or not, a complete absence of mud. It was a testing course featuring a long drag and several undulations but was the subject of rave reviews from the Clonliffe athletes, on what proved to be a fine autumnal, or for the traditionalists, winter’s day.
The Clonliffe men’s team, racing over 9000m, were the dominant force on the day led superbly by the ageless Colm Rooney. Colm was always in the lead pack, and as the pack broke down, he remained in the top two sitting on the shoulders of DCH’s Pierre Murchan, and then unleashing that telling kick, 500 from home to take the Dublin title. Fintan Kerins ran a superb final lap moving up through the field to take 4th place and 3rd in the Dublin championship, next in after another excellent race in 6th was Mahad Egaal and then Stephen Cashin in 10th making up the scoring 4 in the Dublin championship to take a comprehensive win from DSD in 2nd with Donore 3rd. Ben Guiden took 15th, Sergiu Ciobanu 17th, Malcom Kiplagat was 24th, Cathal McHale 34th, Damien Prendergast 44th Darragh Carter 49th, Greg Hosseny 66th, Eoin Keating 67th and Sean Doran 88th.
In the Leinster championship, separate teams had been entered, with only a couple of athletes names on both, the Clonliffe team of Mahad, Stephen, Ben and Cathal took silver.
Individually in the Dublin Championships Colm Rooney took gold and Fintan Kerins bronze whilst in the Leinster championships Mahad won U/23 gold.
The Clonliffe senior women also enjoyed a very successful day, despite it being a small team of only 5 starters, all performed superbly, Helena Butterly was running her 1st race since the springtime, and as always did not disappoint, finishing in a fine 6th position, next in was Niamh Kelly in 13th, and then a Clonliffe train: 22nd Laura Tuite, 23rd Alannah Cooley and 24th Eleanor Alexander. The team were justly rewarded for their efforts by taking Dublin silver.
It was Dublin silver also for the U/20 men. Tom Breslin was 2nd in the race, taking Dublin U/20 gold, then running possibly his best race to date in 8th place was Aidan Benjacar, 11th Lorcan Benjacar, 14th Matei Ursachi, 25th Harry Bogan, 26 Rory Quill 32nd Liam Arthur, 41st Aaron Murray, and 55th Jack Quinn. The quartet of Aidan, Matei, Harry and Rory also bagged Dublin U/19 silver.
The U/20 women’s team battled gamely, Isla Duncan ran very well indeed to finish13th overall, Hannah Walsh took 35th, Rachel Ardiff 45th, Caoimhe Curran 58, Paige Elliott 52nd and Rebecca Finn 54th. The team placed 4th in both the U/20 and U/19 team race.
So a very good day all round, the senior men winning the Padraig Keane Cup, presented by Padraig’s niece Laura Tuite, for the 7th successive time, and silver medals been won by the senior women, U/20 men and indeed the bonus, Leinster silver for the senior men! The work continues now for the next 2 weeks as we all look forward to nationals in Derry on November 23.