Donore are always the traditional hosts of the opening race in the cross country championship season and the tradition is also for sunny weather on this day – this year was no different. It was poignant though that the race did not have the late Jim McNamara on the sidelines – who as Dublin Board chairman Pat Hooper remarked at the presentation afterwards – was never known to miss this race.

There was a mix of new and experienced runners in the ladies 4k novice race which consisted of one small lap and 2 x1.5k longer laps. Marathon runner Alma Hanevy used her endurance to work her way through the 74-strong field really well and finished in 6th. The youngest member of the team 19 year old Niamh O’Neill made her adult cross country debut here and ran a great race, starting off hard but maintaining the pace very well to finish in 11th place. Another two cross country debutantes were Sinead Finn finishing in 21st and Amy Dodd in a close 33rd to the line with two other runners. Jona Kalemi was next in 62nd and will build on this in future races as will Marianne Dunlevy who finished in 64th. The team were at first listed as 5th out of the 9 teams but a mistake was rectified and the team were in fact 4th – just 3 points off the bronze medal.

For the men, the disappointment of narrowly missing out on a team medal (Donore 4th – 58 & Crusaders 3rd – 51) was offset by Rossa Hurley’s tremendous run to secure an individual bronze (20.29), behind Robert Murphy of Rathfarnham AC in second (20.14) and the winner, the classy Cathal Doyle (20.09) of Clonliffe Harriers, a junior international who competed for Ireland at last year’s European Cross Country Championships.

Rossa came through over the first two laps to join the leading group of four athletes, taking the race lead at the midway point before Murphy and Doyle prevailed over the final 2k. The other team scorers Luke Boland in 14th (21.11), Phil Hennessy in 19th (21.27) who paced his race to perfection moving throughout the field over the course of the race and fourth scorer Patrick Byrne in 22nd (21.33). Next in was Ken Norgrove (25th, 21.39), Fergal Roche (34th, 21.56), Des Tremble (39th, 22.08), Kevin Nolan (42nd, 22.21), Alan Farrell (44th, 22.28), Graham Hopkins (60th, 23.05) and Des Gill (91st, 27.00).

Overall, this was a very encouraging opening race that shows Donore have squads capable of competing for Championships medals throughout the cross-country season.

One down, just the Leinster Novice, Dublin Senior, Leinster Senior, National Inter-Clubs, Dublin Intermediate, National Novice, Dublin Masters, Leinster Intermediate, Leinster Masters, National Intermediate, and National Masters left to go!