All posts by Medbh Peavoy

Successful June Bank Holiday Weekend for Donore Athletes

Club News, Juvenile, Results, Senior

John Travers lined up amid a high standard international field in the 5.000m race at the International Flanders Meet at Oordegem in Belgium on Saturday. John was hoping to make the qualifying time for the European Track & Field championships due to be held in Zurich in August. However, after a promising start he had to be content with 29th place from a field of 37 recording a time of 14.19.03, more than 20 seconds slower that his personal best.

Also on Saturday, Lee Van Haeften and Eric Keogh competed in the British Milers Club 5.000m race at Manchester. Lee had a storming run to place 6th in 14.41.59, whilst Eric came 15th in a time of 15.12.59.

It was a fantastic long weekend the Donore ladies. In Monday’s Women’s Mini Marathon, Barbara Cleary won the women’s mini marathon against a stacked field of Ireland’s best female runners coming home 34.07, well clear of Maria McCambridge and Catherina McKiernan. Barbara is the first Donore lady to win this event. Also at the mini-marathon well done to Grace Kennedy (26th in 39.35), Rhona Duane (55th in 42:43), Nicola Dowdall (124th in 46.17), Joan McTernan (233rd in 48.39), Michelle Dawson (52.55) and Laura Murray (53.09)

On Sunday, Anne Curley was first lady in the Derry Walled Marathon in 2.57.50 on a tough course, her first marathon win!  

Also on Sunday, walker Anne Gormley and sprinter Lynda Ngakam won gold at the Leinster Track and Field Senior and Master Championships.  

At the All Ireland Schools, there was double gold for Sean Lawlor, Rebecca Power 3rd in Junior Girls Javelin and well done Jack Rudden Kelly silver in Boys Junior Hurdles and Lauren O’ Keefe silver in Girls Inter Hammer.

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Anne Curley and Barbara Cleary Take Derry Marathon and Women’s Mini Marathon Titles

Club News, Results, Senior

It was a fantastic weekend of racing for Donore’s ladies as Anne Curley finished strongly to take this years Derry Walled City Marathon title on Sunday in a time of 2:57:51 for a hugely impressive 14th overall.

In Monday’s Womens Mini Marathon, Barbara Cleary finished off a fantastic weekend for our ladies by shaking off the challenges of Maria McCambridge and Catherina McKiernan to win in 34.07 finshing comfortably clear of Maria 34.29 minutes and Catherina 34.38.

 

 

AAI Games and Graded Meet

Club News, Results, Senior

Eric Keogh put up a brave performance when finishing 3rd in the AAI Games 3000m at Santry on Sunday. In the process he recorded a new PB time of 8.24.17, a full ten seconds off his previous best time. Eric raced conservatively through the first two kilometres before gaining to 3rd position. At the bell he was just a couple of meters behind Colm Rooney (Raheny) who kicked on to win in 8.19.19 and runner-up Thomas Fitzpatrick (Tallaght AC) who posted a time of 8.21.56. Two notable scalps for Eric were Gary Thornton (Galway AC) in fourth and Kevin Maunsell (Clonmel AC) in fifth.

Ray Hynes, another important member of the developing Donore Harriers A squad, recently ran two 3000m Steeplechase races in France. Ray placed second in a time of 9.14.00 at Rouen on the 4th May. On the 18th May he set himself a target of 9.05 in a race at Limoges, but found himself isolated in 2nd place after only 500m and in 26 degree heat struggled home in a time of 9.21.00 maintaining second position.

In the midweek Graded Meeting at Irishtown and there were some impressive performances.  In 400m, Adam Halpin and Sean O’Broinn were 1st and 2nd in their races.  Maura Kearns unleashed her trademark final sprint in the mile where there was a blanket 3-way finish and she was awarded 2nd.  Twins Ide and Sorcha Nic Dhomhnaill were 1st and 2nd in their mile race and brother Aogan finished 3rd in the 5k where there some impressive runs by a number of our runners, – full results below

400m
Paul cummins 54.06
Adam Halpin 56.02
Sean O’Broinn 56.38
Zak Higgins 66.15

Mile women
Maura Kearns 5.21.57
Ide Nic Dhomhnaill 5.27.98
Sorcha Nic Dhomhnaill 5.29.68
Janette Strickland 5.55.44

Men’s mile
Emmet O’Briain 4.37.53
Luke Boland 4.57.53
Jim McNamara 6.28.56 new Irish M75  record

5000m
Aodghan Nic Dhomhnaill 15.39
Michael McMahon 15.51
Gavin Keogh 15.58
Oisin Fitzgibbon 16.08
Chris Muldoon 16.11
Ken Norgrove 16.39

The day before, there were many good performances at the BHAA Government Services 5 mile race around the quiet country roads of Dunboyne on a pleasant evening, results as follows

Fergal Swaine 27.12
Sean Fox 28.01
Fred Kiernan 28.11
Tony Barry 28.25
Eoin Hannon 28.31
Florence Curley 31.20 3rd W40
Tom Fagan 32.19
Barry Potts 33.02 1st M65
Frank McNally 34.51
Nicola Dowdall 35.55 PB
terry Mee 36.10 1st M70

 

Na Fianna AC / Bob Heffernan 5km

Club News, Results, Senior

A total of 500 runners took to the roads around Johnstonebridge in County Kildare on Tuesday evening in pursuit of glory and personal bests. The event was the Na Fianna AC/ Bob Heffernan 5 kilometres road race. A host of Donore Harriers athletes came to the fore with Aogan MacDomhnaill (15.27) placing 3rd overall and in the process led the Donore Harriers team to first place. John Dunne M35 7th in 15.42 and Gavin Keogh 13th in 15.57 ensured the team prize for Donore Harriers.

With 19 scoring teams the final result read:

1. Donore Harriers 23 points;

2. Star of the Sea AC 30;

3. Mullingar Harriers 48 

4. Dunboyne AC 89.

Other Donore Harriers athletes included: – 15th Chris Muldoon M35 (16.13); 19th Oisin Fitzgibbon (16.15) winner of Junior category; 30th Fergal Whitty M35 (16.33); 32nd Andy Kinane (16.34); 37th Garvan Smith M40 (16.45); 41st Ken Norgrove M45 (16.51); 48th Sean Fox (16.58); 51st Des Tremble M40 (17.04); 59th & 5th junior Sam Gallagher (17.16); 61st Tony Barry (17.21); 70th Bob Blake M40 (17.33); 121st Stephen Dawson (18.34); 147th Bernard Byrne (18.54) and 158th Joe Murphy (19.07).  

Donore Harriers also won the women’s team competition. It was great to see Barbara Cleary back in the Donore vest (16.21) being the overall female winner whilst placing 20th overall in the race. Barbara was supported by Breda Mahony (19.42) in 15th place and Rhona Duane (19.57) in 17th.

The team result was as follows: 

1. Donore Harriers 33 points;

2. Donadea RC 39

3. Portlaoise AC 54.

National League Round 1

Club News, Results, Senior

The Donore squad headed off to Sligo on Sunday the 18th May to take part in the 1st round of the national league. Teams of 11 men and 4 women represented the club brilliantly in very difficult conditions. The men’s team, affected by some injuries and withdrawals introduced some of our promising juveniles and juniors to senior competition. They rose to the occasion as if used to it all their lives. No fear,performances out of the top drawer. The young guns contributed  to a stunning team performance resulting in the team posting 13 individual wins and two seconds in their 15 scoring events to mass a hugely impressive total of 131 points to finish the day top of the pool in Sligo but also top of the league country wide.

The men started off the way they intended to finish, on top of the table with Eoin Molloy earning the vital 1st win for the team in the hammer throw. With things going better than anyone could have expected in the wind and rain, everyone was surprised with how dominant all of the lads were in each event. From the track to the triple jump pit, Donore were a force to be reckoned with. The day ended on a high with the 4×4 squad storming home to take the last win of the day in a great overall team performance.

The ladies had a smaller team than hoped for in the first round, but the depleted team performed miracles, leaving the team in a position, with more athletes on board for the second leg  on 22 June to make the final.

Maura Kearns who warmed up for the event in Tallaght last Wednesday, doubled up to run in the 800m and 1500m finishing second in both events ( 2.31.86 and 4.59.65), Lynda Ngankam finished third in both the 100m and 200m (13.05  and 27.48) and won the Triple Jump with a jump of (10.58 ), Grace Kennedy continued her comback to compete to win the 3000m (11.13.55 ) and the Shot (5.31 ), Anne Gormley completed the team, doubling up in throw events with the Hammer and Discus (16.03 and 13.13).

Full results:

100m (3rd) – Conor Fox

200m (1st) – Conor O’Ceallaigh

400m (1st) – David Campbell

400m hurdles (2nd) – Rolus Osala

800m (1st) – Eric Keogh

1500m (1st) – Eric Keogh

3km Walk (1st) – Kevin English

3km steeplechase (2nd) – Kevin English

5km (1st) – John Travers

Shot putt (1st) – Niall Allen

56lb (1st) – Niall Allen

Hammer (1st) – Eoin Molloy

Javelin (1st) – Jack Oosthuvan

Triple jump (1st) – Rolus Osala

Long jump (2nd) – Rolus Osala

4x100m (1st) – Conor O’Ceallaigh, David Campbell, Adam Halpin, Conor fox

4x400m (1st) –  David Campbell, Henry English, Rolus Osala, Adam Halpin

This was an exceptional performance for both teams, particularly the mens team who are determined to win the Division one this year having finished 3rd in the final for the past two years. It’s early days yet but with such brilliant team spirit and high level performances, they are going about it the right way.

Thanks to all the support, coaches, athletes and anyone that helped with the organisation it was a great success and hopefully we will see plenty of Donore faces supporting the team for the 2nd round in Santry on the June 22nd.

 

Good Weekend on the Roads for Donore and Graded Meet 2

Club News, Events, Results, Senior

The superlatives for Jim McNamara seem endless, but the great man continually breaks down barriers in what has been an encyclopaedic athletics career. In the second Dublin Open Graded meeting at Tallaght last Wednesday (14.05.14) Jim took a half-minute off the Irish M75 1500 record when placing 8th in the ‘D’ race in a time of 5.57.83. Jim later described the race as thus: “The young lads got away from me so I had to do the race as if it was a time trial”. Well done Jim!

Other club results from the same meeting include: – 200m ‘A’ 6th David Campbell 24.27; ‘B2’ 5th Connor Fox 24.52; ‘B3’ 4th Adam Halpin 25.27; ‘C’ Sean O’Broin 25.21. 1500m ‘C’ 2nd Henry English 4.18.64; 9th Luke Boland 4.27.48. Shot Pull 2nd Niall Allen 11.34m.  Taking to the track for Donore’s Ladies in the 1500m A was Maura Kearns 3rd (4.51.42), Sorcha Nic Dhomhnaill 5th  (4.56.78), Karla Doran 12th (5.31.02). In the 1500m B we had  Ide Nic Dhomhnaill was 1st (5.02.00), Janette Strickland 9th (5.27.20), Sinéad Graham 11th (5.29.40) and Lynda Ngankam 6th in the 200m A (27.2)

In the Terenure 5 mile on Sunday (18.05.14) Phil Hennessy M40 led home a small Donore Harriers team in 26th position in a time of 27.44. Tony Barry (29.34) placed 51st, Stephen Dawson (31.25) 94th , M65 athlete Barry Potts (33.31) finished in 170th place from a field of more than 1300 runners and Frank McNally (34.49). We had some great runs from the ladies, Anne Curley was 6th overall in a time of (30.49), Florence Curley 18th in (32.37), Rhona Duane had another fantastic run with (33.45), Karen Behan (35.13), Medbh Peavoy making a tentative return  (36.03) and Mary Murphy (38.40).

Meanwhile at the Maynooth 10km, which starts in the grounds of St. Patrick’s College and finished inside the grounds of Carton House, Joe Murphy (40.48) placed 24th.

In the midweek Cheetah Run in Cork, Conor McCauley finished 8th with (22.39) and Tom Fagan in the BHAA Beach run 19:49.

Day One of Leinster Schools

Club News, Juvenile, Results

Day one of the Leinster School’s Track and Field Championships took place in Santry on Wednesday May 14th. There were great performances all round by Donore’s young athletes with 11 medals banked.

Not only were gold medals and PB’s achieved, but in the Junior Girls Hammer Lauren O’Keeffe threw her way into the record books setting a new Leinster record with an incredible 53.02m, the previous record throw was 41.52m. Emily barry was second with a throw of 28.69m just short of her PB. In the Boys Junior Hammer Iain Darroch won gold with a throw of 42.2m. Rebecca Power won the Junior Javelin 31.79m and was second in the Discus with a throw of 24.65m.

In the Minor Girls High Jump Lara O’Byrne won joint gold with a jump of 1.47. In the Boys Junior Hurdles race we had two medal winners, Jack Rudden Kelly continued his fantastic form to take the gold and Alex Clarkin who has also had some great performances this year, took the bronze. Jack also went on to win silver in the Junior High Jump and in the second last race of the day Jack anchored home the relay team in the Boys Junior. Max Carey won the Junior Boys Long Jump with a PB of 5.37.


Also competing: (full results not available)
Suzi O’Farrell Junior 100m 5th 13.58
Cara Brennan Junior 2oom 6th 29.09
Eve Reilly Junior 200m 7th
Rebecca Slathery 6th 110m Hurdles
Lara O’byrne 6th Minor 110m Hurdles
Lucy McCann 1500m 


Well done to everyone.

A Good Weekend for our UK Based Athletes and Weekend Round-Up

Club News, Meet & Train, Results, Senior

The Highgate Harriers track on the edge of the Parliament Hill Fields in North London was the setting for the ‘Night of the 10.000m PBs’ event on Saturday 10th May 2014 and our own Lee Van Haeften proved to be noteworthy winner of the ‘B’ category race in a Personal Best time of 31.37.19. A field of 23 runners had to endure wet and blustery conditions, but the close attention of runner-up Bill McKay (31.40) of Bedford & County AC pushed a gritty Lee to achieve his PB.

Meanwhile at a British Athletics League Division One fixture at Eton Mark Dooley came 6thin the 3.000m, representing Herne Hill Harriers, in a PB time of 8.36.80.

Closer to home Des Tremble finished an excellent 9thoverall in the Lucan Harriers Tom Byrne 5km road race (11.05.14) recording a time of 17.06. Des came second in the M40 category. Good run here also for Sue Lynch. Caren Crowley was 3rd lady at the Clanna Gael 5k beach run.

At the IMC Meet in Greystones on Saturday, Sean Lawlor ran brilliantly to win the senior 200m race in a time of 22.23.

In the mid-week Womens Meet and Train 5k in Irish town the Donore ladies were, once again, out in force. Great results for Donore with Emer Rattigan 2nd, Janette Strickland 3rd, Aisling Swaine 5th, Bronagh Elliot 6th and Karla Doran 8th. Also running, Kim Strickland, Angela Eustace, Ruth Chambers, Angela Mellenor, Christina Gonzalez, Mary Murphy, Olivia Strickland, Laura Murray, Anne Woodlock, Deirdre Brennan, Lavinia Kirwan and Sue Lynch.

Long Weekend Brings Dublin and Leinster Success

Club News, Juvenile, Results, Senior

In the Tallaght AC 5km road race (4.05.14) Tony Barry (17.26) placed 20th with Sam Gallagher (a Junior) 25th in 17.29.  Bob Blake (M40) 31st in 17.52 and Stephen Dawson 58th in 18.58 also competed.

The ladies team ran brilliantly to hold onto the Dublin Novice gold. Packing well together Janette Strickland (20.24), Emer Rattigan (20.23) and Sinéad Graham entered the track together where a last push from Sinéad saw her finish first for Donore (20.19) and enough to nab individual bronze in the Novice race, Karla Doran completed the scoring with  (20.50). Also competing were Aisling Swaine (21.02),  Lorraine O’Shea (21.54), Kim Strickland (22.43), Olivia Strickland (23.39) and Mary Murphy (23.53).

Team captain on the day Graham Hopkins described it as “another good day at the office for Donore Harriers” after having led the team home to silver medals in the Leinster Masters Road Championship (6km) at Gowran, Co. Kilkenny on Monday last (5.05.14).

An in-form Newbridge AC team, fresh from their bronze medals success in the recent national road relays, were clear winners on 26 points with their four scorers inside the top dozen. But a solid performance from the Donore Harriers quartet saw them place second on 52 points ahead of 3rd placed St. Abbans AC on 64 The scoring four were: – Graham Hopkins (20.15) 7th overall, Will Morris (20.44) 13th, Garvan Smith (20.51) 15th and Des Tremble (21.02) 19th. Graham won a silver individual medal in the M40 category, with Garvan 5th and Des 7th in the same class. Will placed 7th in the M35 category. Graham Hopkins rounded off a clean sweep of silver medals when he joined Will Morris on the scoring Dublin county team. An unfortunate Fergal Swaine had to retire from the race on the second lap due to illness.

In the ARC Cancer Support 10km run in the Phoenix Park, also on Monday, Kevin English (35.08) was the winner with M45 athlete Tom Fagan placing 29th in 40.35.

There was an array of Donore Harriers athletes competing in the first Dublin Open Graded Meeting at Santry on Wednesday evening 30th April. Aogan MacDomhnaill came 3rd in an eventful 3.000m ‘A’ race recording a time  8.49.69 to post a massive Personal Best. John Dunne was running on target for a sub 9 minutes, but faded slightly in the final kilometre before placing 6th in 9.05.88.

Michael McMahon won out in an exciting race to the finish line in the B 3.000m race recording a time of 9.12.34. In the same race Emmet O’Briain (9.23.93) placed 5th; Chris Muldoon (9.29.48) 7th and Ken Norgrove (9.40.34) 10th.

In the 800m Henry English (2.07.01) came 7th in the B race; Luke Boland (2.11.73) 5th in the C; and Killian O’Hora (2.14.31) 2nd, Tom Fagan (2.30.45) 9th, Terry Mee (2.57.11) 10th and Jim McNamara (3.03.28) 11th  in the D race. Paul Cummins placed 7th in the B 100 metres in 12.51.

In the DCU Helix 5km on the 30th April 2014 Declan Raftery placed 14th in 20.39.

Also competing over the long weekend, Anne Curley finished as second lady in the BHAA RTE 5 mile (30.43), Patrick Moriarty 11th overall (28.20), Terry Mee (36.35), Ann Woodlock (43.51) and Tommy Halton (40.37). Breda Mahony was 5th in the Waterford2Tramore race and Nicola Dowdall and Eilish Joyce ran well in the Boyne 10k.

In the recent Boston Marathon Sean Fox recorded a time of 2.59.28 whilst Shane McAuley completed the course in 3.05.31, Joan McTernan also took part in the historic race with a time of 4.24.54. Well done to all.

 

 

John Travers Represents Ireland at Penn Relays and Weekend Round Up

Club News, Results, Senior

After opening for the Irish Team in the Penn Relay International Distance Medley Relay (DMR) at Franklin Field in Philadelphia on Saturday, John Travers described it as  “ an absolutely unbelievable experience”. John (3.01.99) mixed it early with David Torrence (2.59.43) of the USA and Ryan Gregson (3.29.86) of Australia in the first (1200m) leg before handing the baton to 400m specialist Brian Cregan (46.31) in 3rd position.

The DMR is made up of four legs: 1,200m, 400m, 800m and 1 mile. The Irish quartet was completed by Paul Robinson 800m (1:48.59) and John Coghlan 1600m (4.05.95). The final team result saw the USA winning the event in a time of 9.28.27 with Australia second in a time of 9.30.74, then Ireland 3rd in 9.42.83 and Mexico 4th in 10.00.41.

Much closer to home Will Morris had a fine race in the Samsung Night Run in Dublin City Centre on Sunday evening. Will held 9th position from early on before a sprint finish saw him win the spoils for 8th place. Also in the race were Kenneth Cronin (43.07) and Conor McCarthy (43.12).

At the Wexford 10km Road Race on Sunday, Gavin Keogh showed a return to form when placing 2nd in 34.07. Bob Blake (37.49) came 9th.

In the recent Bonniconlon 5km road race the Fitzgibbon brothers were out in force. Oisin, who is a Junior u/18s athlete, was a clear winner of the event in an excellent 16.38. Behind him there was a sibling battle for 11th place with Tadgh (u/16s) narrowly edging in front of Ruairi (u/15s) near the finish tape. Both recorded times of 20.35.
Another recent result saw coach Mick Bourke M65 record a time of 15.32 at the Letterkeny AC Easter 3km.

In Easter Monday’s rejuvenated Leinster 10 mile Championship hosted by Raheny Shamrocks as part of the Brian Boru festival, Anne Curley ran a brilliant race to finish first with 62.42. Also competing on the day Terry Mee 76.16, Tony Griffin 72.19 and Charlie O’Neill 73.26. Kevin English was 2nd in the Laura Lynn Half Marathon on Good Friday in 76:38, Sian O’Connor 1:47:53 and Elaine Verdon 1:47:30 ran also.