A fifth place finish by the Donore Harriers senior men’s team at the National Road Relay championship at Raheny last Sunday gives indication of more positive results in the future. A young Donore team was led out by Eric Keogh (splits of 4m.48 & 5m.09) who came back in 7th place after the first 2-mile leg. Lee Van Haeften (4m.46) ran a solid one-mile lap to maintain 7th position. Next on the road was John Travers, who gained to 5th after posting laps of (4m.46, 5m.09 and 5m.03). The final leg runner was Mark Dooley (5m.05 & 5m.02) who ran an even paced stage maintaining 5th position to the finish line. Sligo AC were the team winners with a total time of 38m.31s, ahead of Raheny Shamrocks 38m.34 and Clonliffe Harriers 38m.55. Donore Harriers came 5th in 39m.47.

The senior B team finished 14th with a total time of 43m.00. Daragh Fitzgibbon showed improved form covering the first leg in 10m.09 (laps of 5m.00 & 5m.09), before handing over to Sam Allen (5m.04) who maintained 10th spot after the 1-mile leg. Darren Hand showed true grit in his came-back race after a few weeks out through injury. Darren ran the mile lap in times of (5m.11, 5m.26 and 5m.26) to tap on to Tomas Griffin in 11th position. Tomas, however, found it tough going and fell back to 14th after laps of (5m.44 and 6m.00).

We had 3 teams in the Masters Race which was run over laps of 1-mile, 2 miles and then another 1- mile. The masters’ A team came an overall 7th with a cumulative time of 20m.27. John Dunne (4m.48), Fergal Whitty (5m.04 & 5m.43) and Dave Heffernan (4m.54) did the club proud in a very competitive field.

The masters’ B team came 18th with Donal Iremonger (5m.19), Gerard McDonald (5m.41 & 5m.45) and John Gleeson (6m.01) coming home in a total time of 22m.46. The C team came 25th and was represented by Des Gill (5m.46), Dave Wogan (5m.51 & 6m.00) and Ian Redican (5m.53) for a total time of 23m.30.

Gerry Naughton