It was team silvers for both the Clonliffe women and men’s novice cross country teams today at the Dublin novice cross country championships held in the Phoenix Park. It was a fine autumnal day, warm, dry but with a stiff breeze to spice things up for the athletes.
The women’s novice team put in a fine performance, particularly as having won the national novice last December it was basically a whole new team out competing today. The team ran very controlled races resisting the temptation to go too hard from the gun and then all worked their way nicely through the field led home after an excellent run by Chloe Heaslip in 7th position, next in was Rachel McFadden taking 11th being chased all the way in, there was only a 2 second gap between them, by Aoife O’Reilly 12th with Grace Twomey the 4th scorer in 14th. 16th position was Alana Burke, 31st Emma Przymusinska, 43rd Katie Halpin, 57th Caoimhe Curran, and 58th Meadhbh O’Sullivan. DSD took team gold on 18 points with the Clonliffe women silver on 44 and Raheny taking bronze on 66.
The novice men’s race was over 6,000m (4 x 1500 laps). From the gun it was obvious that this would be a Clonliffe and DSD battle with both clubs having 4 athletes in the top dozen. Heading into the final lap it was neck and neck, Jack Doyle was having a superb day and was rewarded by taking individual bronze, likewise an excellent race from Aidan Benjacar who took 6th, however DSD took the individual battles to take the Dublin novice title on 27 points, Clonliffe took silver on 32 with Raheny 3rd on 64, mirroring the result of the women’s novice. Matei Ursachi finished in 8th position with Lee Duddy in 15th making up the scoring 4. These four were superbly backed up in 16th by Karl Nolan, 17th Mark McDonald, 18th Lorcan Benjacar, 31st Jack Quinn 32nd Niall Sherlock, 34th Simon Caer, 41st Ray Dunne, 46th Billy Stafford, 54th Andrew Gaffney.
So in all a very positive start to the cross country season. The national novice cross country will take place on December 6, venue to be confirmed with it most likely to be Abbottstown.
Next up is the Autumn cross country in Abbottstown on October 16, the Dublin cross-country in Tymon Park on November 1 and the national senior and U/20s in Abbottstown on November 22.