Several days of rain meant sloppy conditions underfoot at the cross country championships at Tattersalls, Ratoath where there were 6 Donore athletes in action.

Oisin Fitzgibbon will be well pleased with his 28th place in the National U-16 race where there were 140 runners in action – we will definitely be seeing more of Oisin over the next while. The Ladies 8k intercounty race had a stellar line-up and in the mix were Barbara Cleary (representing Clare) and Anne Curley and Dervila Holmes (representing Mayo). The heavy conditions saw Barbara quite a distance back in the first lap where she seemed to struggle with the muddy conditions. So Barbara had a lot of work to do and did very well to move up from the 30s into 18th position picking off the girls who had tired from a fast early pace. The last stages of the race saw Barbara in a three way battle with Siobhan O’Doherty and Clare Tarplee who just pipped her and she finished 13th – farther back than expected since she had beaten or equalled most of the runners ahead in previous races, but in her first ever cross country season and with a string of great races behind her, she has lots more to give. In the early stages Anne worked steadily in the tough conditions – gradually Dervila came through and worked her way to an excellent 25th in her first inter-counties. Anne who did the marathon less than a month ago was perhaps feeling the effects of the faster pace here but used her strength to finish in a still fine 35th place.

John Travers took to the line for the men’s 10k representing Dublin and the U23 category. At one stage he was lying 10th but finished in an eventual 23rd out of 140 runners. This was enough for him to get picked for the Irish U23 team in the Budapest Euro-cross in a few weeks time so congratulations to John who has turned around his form of late and we wish him well in Budapest. Darren Hand is back running cross country and ran for his native Cavan here finishing in 104th place.

Elsewhere, there were several Donore runners in action at the BHAA mixed 6k cross country race in Santry Demesne where the men and women ran the same distance. Well done to Fergal Whitty who finished 11th, Feargal Swaine 20th, Fred Kiernan 22nd, Emmet O’Briain 35th, Padraig McGreal 77th, Ian Redican and Terry Mee (1st M65). Of the women, Florence Curley was 7th and 2nd W35, Mary McDermott was 2nd W40 and Ann Woodlock 1st W70