The final team score looked familiar as the Donore Harriers’ men’s team (53 points) achieved 3rd place behind winners Clonliffe Harriers (28) and second-placed Raheny Shamrocks (41) when the Dublin Intermediate Cross Country championships took place at Tymon Park on Sunday. Last month’s Dublin Senior XC championship saw the same teams had finished in the same order.

A sprint-finishing John Dunne (29:09) placed 6th, less than 10 seconds shy of 3rd spot. An excellent run! Next home was Graham Hopkins (29:41) in 14th, with Fergal Whitty (29:46) 16th. An in-form Fergal Swaine (29:49) completed the scoring quartet when placing 17th.  The first thee home for the Harriers competed in the recent Dublin Marathon and all clearly benefitted from the training workload.

The remaining team finishers in the 8km race were: – Paul Cummins (31:29) 32nd; Rob Scanlon (32:22) 38th; Gerard McDonald (32:57) 41st; Niall O’Reilly (34:16) 47th; and Ian Redican (35:34) 50th.

In the 4km Women’s race the ever improving Janette Strickland (17:52) led home the team in 17th position. The scoring team was completed by Sinead Graham (18:04) 20th; Emer Rattigan (18:11) 24th; and Rhona Duane (18:40) 30th. The team placed 6th on 91 points behind winners Raheny Shamrocks.

Eva Campion (19:00) 33rd and Ashling Swaine (19:23) 35th also competed.

Over in Dunboyne a little earlier in the day,  despite some team members being double booked in Tymon Park another 14 ladies ran in the 2nd race of the Meet and Train Winter League. Karen Behan continued her fantastic recent form with another 3rd placed finish in 12:40 over the tough 2 mile course in what provd to be a good battle between the top 3, Karen finished just behind Hollie Geslon of Lakshore Striders 12:36 and Claire Ní Fhaircheallaigh of Dunboyne in 12:37. Also featuring for Donore was marathon ladies Lorraine O’Shea (11th), Lee Chambers (15th), Suzanne McCarthy (23rd) and Angela Eustace (24th). Cliodhna Carthy (14th) joined Lorraine and Karen to make up the A team.  Michelle Murphy, Meadbh Campbell, Sarah Ní Ruairc, Eilish Joyce, Mary Murphy, Sue Lynch, Ann Woodlock and Maisie Byrne made up the numbers for Donore.

Down in Waterford, Sinéad Lambe had a hugely impressive half marathon debut finishing in 1:25:42, just 2 minutes ahead was Ronan Lambe making a solid return in his comeback race with 1:23:52. Anne Curley completed the hat trick for Donore finishing just behind Ronan with 1:24:02.