Other Donore Harriers in the events were Eric Keogh (9.31s) who ran the 6^th fastest in the first of the 2 mile legs as part of a DCU ‘B’ team that finished 6^th overall; Cathal McCarron (16.48s) who ran the 3-mile leg for the AIT ‘B’ team that placed 21^st overall; and Killian O’Hara (18.11s) who also ran the long-leg when representing the Blanchardstown IT team that came 29th. In the Limerick Senior Cross Country championships at Tournafulla on Sunday John Downes rolled back the years to finish in first place ahead of Declan Moore of Bilboa AC and Niall O’Callaghan of West Limerick.

Donore’s Fit4Life section was well represented at the Clontarf half marathon and 5 mile road races along the seafront on Sunday.  Three members who ran the Dublin marathon less than a month ago were back in action in the half marathon – Nigel Elliott finished in 1.44.19, Emily Malcolm and Eimear Kearney both broke the 2 hours mark in 1.59.10 and 1.59.14 respectively.  Cariosa Walsh ran the 5 mile race in a time of 48.38.

A few miles away, the BHAA Irish Life CC was underway on Santry demesne.  This 6k race is possibly the only mixed cross country race on the calendar and first home in an excellent 9th place was Gavin Keogh.  Patrick Moriarty was 30th, Joe Murphy 71st, Ian Redican 89th; next was Breda Mahony also 3rd W35, next was Frank McNally, Colin Moore, Terry Mee (1st W70) Julia Hackett (great to see her back racing after a maternity break!) and Ann Woodlock now in the W75 category and 1st in that class.

Well done all.

John Travers brought glory to Donore Harriers with an excellent victory in the Dublin Senior Men’s Cross-Country Championship at St. Anne’s Park in Raheny last Sunday.

John was always to the fore and at the halfway point of the 6 laps, 10.000m course it was down to just 3 runners in the leading group. John still had the close attention of Clonliffe duo Stephen Scullion and Brian McMahon. As McMahon begin to slip back Travers moved up a gear on the 5th lap to open a gap on Scullion. And John held his pace to the finish line to record a time of 30.50s with Scullion 2nd on 30.56s and McMahon 3rd on 31.28s.

There was 3rd place team medals for Donore as 4 other black and white singlets finished in the top 20. Lee Van Haeften came an excellent 13th in 32.31s; Mark Dooley had a strong last lap to gain to 14th in 32.41s; Ray Hynes, on his Donore debut, came 19th in 32.53s having recently recovered from injury; and team captain Eric Keogh finished 20th in 33.01s having been 10th in the early stages of the race. With six-to-score it was left to the ever consistent Gavin Keogh to close the team as he finished 35th in 34.17s.

Clonliffe Harriers 55 points were 19 points ahead of Raheny Shamrocks with Donore Harriers (102) a clear 3rd ahead of Rathfarnham (133), Liffey Valley (271) and Crusaders (284). This was the first Dublin Championship XC team medals won by Donore Harriers senior men since the mid 90s. And the team was beaten by arguably the two best teams in the country for men’s distance running. Incidentally, just 3 teams had 15 athletes in the top 20. Clonliffe had 6, Raheny had 4 and Donore 5.

The non-scoring finishers for Donore Harriers were Dave Heffernan 38th in 34.52s and Andrew Ledwith 42nd in 35.21s. Andrew was also making his Donore debut and was clearly feeling the worst of being in the recovery stages of a chest infection.  There are better days ahead for both Andrew and the team!

The ladies team of Sorcha and Ide NicDhomhnaill, Sinead Lambe, Grace Kennedy and Samantha Conroy pulled out another great team effort for Donore. First home for the ladies was Sinead, finishing strong in 12th place, Sorcha (14th), Ide (17th), Grace (19th) and Samantha (28th) to make it a Donore double and bring back the ladies bronze. This is a great start to the season for this team who performed so well together last year.

The junior men’s team finished in 5th place (95 points) behind winners DSD (22). The team was led home by Sam Allen who slipped back in the later stages of the 6,000m race to come home in 17th position in a time of 21.03s. Just one place further back was Oisin Fitzgibbon (21.14s) who placed 10th in the incorporated u/18s championship. Stephen Gavin (21.50s) placed 26th overall and 16th in the u/18s, whilst Ryan Kiernan came 34th in 22.41s. It should be noted that both Oisin and Stephen were stepping-up in age group as both are eligible to run in next month’s u17s Dublin XC championship.

Big congratulations also to Alma Hanevy who completed the New York marathon in tough, windy conditions with a fantastic 7 minute PB in 3:26:37 and Teresa Brophy 4:30:24.

After months of training and nervous anticipation, 35 Donore members toed the line for the Dublin marathon, some seasoned regulars, many first timers and from all parts of the club from senior to Fit4life.  Mercifully, the predicted storms didn’t materialise on the day, it was sunny with a stiff headwind on parts of the course.  Fergal Whitty was first home in an excellent 2.34.51 and was 2nd M35 in the national championship.  John  Dunne PB, Niall lynch and Darren Hand finished next close together and this teamwork saw Fergal, John and Niall claim national Masters team gold.  In the 2.50s were Hugh, Graham (despite a misjudgment at the start which put him a different wave), Sean (who ran Berlin a month ago) George and Tony (also ran Berlin).  Philip Hennessy unfortunately pulled out injured. First Lady home was Anne Curley who ran her 8th sub-three hour marathon despite suffering from a cold and was 2nd W40, sister Florrie was next in her marathon debut. Between 3.10 and 3.37 we had Stephen, Tom, Liam, Gerard, Charlie Liam, Ian (another Berliner!)and Lisa.

The 5 woman band of Angela, Kim, Lorraine, Suzanne and Lee who trained diligently together the past few months did fantastically well and helped each other along the way, Angela knocked spots off her PB again as did Kim.  Lorraine and Suzanne did great debuts.   Nicola’s race was hampered by a fall but she finished well as did Elaine and Liagh.  Happily, the ladies also claimed the masters team gold making it a Donore Double with Angela Eustace getting her first national medal as 3rd scorer.  Great runs too from Fit4life members Elaine, Emily, Sandra, Eimear, Andrew , Laura and Ivan many who ran their first marathon.

Again, big thanks to all the many many supporters who popped out everywhere on the course, Jenny and all the gang at the Donore water station who worked so hard to feed the 14,500!.  Full results below

On Sunday, in perfect cross country conditions for the first time this season we sent 4 teams to the Leinster Novice and Masters Cross Country in Dunboyne. On a relatively flat, but technical course the novice ladies were first up in their 4k race. First home for the ladies was Aisling Swaine who is returning to form and ran well on the second lap to make up places, finishing 40th, right behind Aisling finishing in an almost identical time was Eva Campion in 41st , next in was Rhona Duane 45th who was disappointed with her race but is adapting well in her first championship season, following Rhona was was Medbh Peavoy in 51st and Cristina Gonzalez in 67th. Despite the team running well together it wasn’t enough to grab a medal following some strong runs from other teams.

The Masters ladies put in a fantastic team run with 16th, 19th, 21st and 23rd falling just short of a medal. Karen Behan ran a fantastic second lap to move through the field and was first home for the masters ladies in 16th place in a great time of 17:09, next in was Sam Conroy 19th in 17:13, Breda Mahony on her way back from injury was 21st in 17:22 and Janette Strickland rounded off the team with yet another brilliant run finishing 23rd in 17:26.

Eric Keogh and Lee Van Haeften gave indication of good form for the forthcoming Dublin Senior Cross-Country championships when they placed 1^st and 3^rd respectively in the Leinster Novice Cross Country championships at Dunboyne on Sunday. The Donore duo formed a part of a breakaway trio together with Karol Cronin of Sportsworld. Eric had to recover from a fall on the second lap to gain victory in a time of 20 minutes and 18 seconds. Lee covered the 6km race in 21.24s to place 3^rd.  The Men’s Novice team placed 4^th on 81 points with Eoin Hannon 35^th in 22.28s and Luke Boland 42^nd in 23.06s making up the scoring 4 finishers. Crusaders 39 points, Raheny 69 and Dunboyne also on 69 were the first 3 teams. Niall O’Reilly on his Cross-Country debut came 60^th in 24.12s.

The Donore Men’s Masters team placed 3^rd on 93 points in what proved a tight call on team placings. Tullamore were clean winners on 34 points, with Donore sandwiched between Drogheda & District 90 and Raheny 95. John Downes 9^th in 21.37s led the team home, with Fergal Swaine 21^st in 22.02s, Emmet O’Briain 30^th in 22.40s and Fred Kiernan 33^rd in 22.50s making up the scoring 4. Padraig McGreal came 58^th in 24.04s with Terry Mee placing 1^st in the over 70s category after completing the rain-swept 6 kilometres course in 29.35s.

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