There was a great turn out of Donore athletes graced the roads of Raheny on Sunday, cheered by tremendous support from our enthusiastic supporters. We had teams in all the races and the black ribbon worn by all team members were poignant reminders of two great members Jim Mac and Tommie Hayward gone to their rest in recent weeks. Competitions were of a tremendously high standard, so there were no easy medals on offer.
The ladies Masters teams finished in 8th and 12 the positions. Our senior ladies teams finished in 12th and 13th positions, just 11 seconds separating them. There were some very good individual performances on both teams, which is a positive for the future.
Our Masters men were brilliant taking gold and 8th place from a field of 25 teams. John Dunne got the A team off to the perfect start handing over to Michael McMahon in a close second place. Michael ran a brilliant two mile leg handing over to New Dad Emmet O’Broin , who ran a cool final one mile leg and breasted the tape in first place. A fantastic win. Congrats also to our B team on a top class performance.
Our senior men were struck a blow earlier in the week in their effort to retain their title,with the withdrawal of Daragh Fitzgibbon due to having contacting the flu. Nevertheless, they were positive and determined going to the start line.Eric Keogh gave the team the perfect start when finishing in front at the end of the 2 mile leg, handing over to John Dunne who was running for the second time that afternoon. John Travers was next in on the 3 mile leg with a lot of work to do and matched leader Mick Clohesy’s time bringing Donore into second place. The final 2 mile leg in which Ray Hynes took on was loaded with top class outstanding athletes and in a hectic final mile we were pushed down to 5th place. Not to be Donore’s day!
All in all a proud day for the club.
OnThursday 21st at 7pm National 1500m champion and Olympic bound Ciara Mageen is coming down to the club to run with our ladies in the Phoenix Park. Ciara will attend a question and answer session in the club lounge after. This is a wonderful opportunity to run and listen to such a high quality athlete as Ciara. So ladies of all standards you are all welcome and even any men. So please be ready to run at 7pm. Any peope free might help with preparing some light refreshments