The BHAA cross country series of races kicked off in the grounds of Castleknock College on Saturday. The series is a great introduction to cross-country running for many, as well as an opportunity for club athletes looking to test their fitness ahead of the Senior season. Donore dominated both men’s and women’s races, with Ide Nic Dhomhnaill winning the women’s 2 mile race by a big margin from DSD’s Niamh Devlin, and another good run by Aisling Swaine in 6th. It was a Donore 1-2 in the men’s with Eric Keogh taking the win ahead of clubmate Lee Van Haeften and last year’s national novice winner Stephen Lawlor of St. Abban’s in third.

Complete results available here (https://bhaa.ie/events/teachers-cross-country-2016/) with club results as follows:

Men’s 4 mile
Eric Keogh 1st
Lee van Haeften 2nd
Rossa Hurley 12th
Ken Norgrove 23rd
Kevin Nolan 25th
Fergal Swaine 32nd
Tom Fagan 53rd (3rd M45)
Peter Nugent 54th
Joe Murphy 58th
Colm Mullen 59th (xc debut)
Colin Moore 76th
Ken McKeown 80th
Terry Mee 99th (1st M70)

Women’s 2 mile
1st Ide Nic Dhomhnaill
6th Aisling Swaine
26th Mary McDermott
28th Marianne Dunlevy

Ian Redican has a photo gallery of the race here: https://www.flickr.com/photos/red-i/albums/72157671466474544

Results Round-up
With only weeks to go until the Dublin marathon, the 3/4 marathon event in Longwood, Meath attracted nearly 1000 runners. A well-received course and good weather meant that participants were happy with their times. First home for the club in 5th place and just dipping under the 2 hour mark was Anthony Flannery in 1.59.50 with Chris Muldoon not far behind in 7th place 2.01.50. Alma Hanevy isn’t doing an Autumn marathon this year but she had a really good showing today after the novice last week and finished 3rd lady in 2.23.28. Stephen Dawson was next in 2.24.12. Michael Barry crossed the line in 2.37.09. Dublin marathon-bound Michelle Dawson finished in 3.05.06 and despite some cramping in the legs, Laura Murray ran 3.10.17.

Meanwhile, in his native Cavan Niall Lynch came 4th in the 10k Run With Catherina in 34.45, celebrating its most famous sportsperson. In Limerick Olympian Sinead Jennings was 2nd in her rowing club’s St Michael’s Urban Run in 40.58.

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!

October 1st at Donore Harriers was the traditional annual opening run and group photo. A little later on and with a great turnout, Donore Harriers celebrated the achievements of its runners 40 years ago in 1976 and 50 years ago in 1966. Club President Iain Morrison introduced and there was a minute’s silence for the Donore members who passed during the year and who had family members present.

A keen custodian of Donore’s rich past, Willie Smith spoke about the 1966 European championships and the Montreal Olympics 1976. He also made a presentation to the family of high jumper Dick Raftery who were present.

Dr Cyril White who joined the club in 1944, has been President of the club and a former coach and is also well know as a race starter . He spoke and paid tribute to the volunteers that have made the club a great one. He also found out this year that he is longest serving starter in athletics in Europe, playing this role for 62 years, congratulations Cyril!

Michael Gygax was there to talk about his excellent new book on Irish Masters Athletics and brought copies of it for sale. It features a number of Donore athletes some of who were present, Willie Dunne, Ann Woodlock and Tony Murphy. There were many extended family members of the late Jim McNamara present, also family of the late Maurice Mullins. Michael read extracts from the book and Jim McNamara’s older brother Maurice paid a a moving tribute to Jim.

Thanks all who attended and helped out, especially the family members of the deceased – great to see faces old and new.

Midweek & Weekend round-up

There were no less than 3 night-time races during the week which featured runners from Donore Harriers. In Sligo was the Ballymote Firefly 5k challenge organised by Corran AC and Dermot McDermott. John Travers won the road mile event in 4.01 seeing off Alberto Sanchez in 4.02. The 5k featured young Sam Allen and he was an excellent 4th in 15.56. Earlier in the week, the Twilight Team Challenge took place around Sandyford Business Park. The winner in 17.21 was back from injury Ian O’Leary; 3rd overall and 1st woman was Ide Nic Dhomhnaill fresh from a great Rathfarnham 5K days before. Karla Doran was 3rd lady in 18.55 and great to Aislinn NiDhomhnaill back in action where she ran 19.20.
The ParkWest 10k and 5K nighttime races took place in the Clondalkin area and the indefatigable George Brady was 3rd in the 10k in 36.30. Luke Boland came 2nd in the 5k race in 17.04 with Peter Nugent running 20.09 There were only two Donore athletes in the Dublin Simon Fun Run, held over 5 miles in the Phoenix Park last Saturday. Anthony Flannery came in 4th in 27:16, while Tony Barry dipped under the 30-minute barrier finishing in 15th place in 29:42.

In Galway, Mark Dooley showed excellent form ahead of the cross-country season with a clear win in the half marathon. His time of 71 minutes is particularly impressive considering his victory was a solo run, with 2nd and 3rd place 7 and 8 minutes behind and bodes well for the important races coming up over the next few months.

The track and field season drew to a close with a number of impressive performances in many age groups at the National Track and Field Masters championships in Tullamore. A number of competitors won multiple medals in both track and field events notably Niall Allen’s gold in the WFD and silver in the discus. Karla Doran had a treble and won W35 400m gold, 800m silver and 1500m bronze. Donal Iremonger was an impressive double silver winner for M45 400m and 800m. Michael McMahon won silver in a very competitive 5000M. Orlaith Read was leading the W45 up til the last round and she won silver. Tony Jenkins won bronze in the M70 shot and Alex Kelly won discus bronze too.
A great end to the season – well done all.

Full results

The day before in the Phoenix Park, over 40 Donore runners took part in the Frank Duffy 10 mile road race which also doubles as the Dublin 10 mile road championship (results of that awaited). Before the race even started, participants got soaked and the benefits of a slightly easier course than last year were cancelled out by the rain and wind that runners had to contend with in the race. Despite that, there were many good runs on the day. First home for the club was Anthony Flannery followed by Phil Hennessy Fergal Whitty. Grace Kennedy finished first of the ladies and was 17th woman overall with Amy Moriarty in 20th position and she got a PB. Well done to Barry Potts who won the M65 agegroup. It was good to see some new members in the singlet for the first time (Audrey Gahan) and a group of the Fit4Life runners. Many are using this as a good buildup to Autumn marathons – well done all, full results below.

Sinead Jennings returned to Ireland after her Olympic rowing adventure and one of the first things she did was run a half marathon in her native Donegal, she was the first woman by some distance in a time of 83 minutes – inspiring stuff!
Over in the west Aine Mahony was the 2nd woman home in the Gaelforce West event, which is a combination of cycling, kayaking and road and trail running, sister Breda Mahony performed well too.
Well done all!