Picture from RacePix

Tuesday night was the Paul O’Connell memorial 8K road race in the Dublin Docklands. It’s a nice easy course with a good crowd for support and one of the few opportunities to run through the city. This year after a very sunny day the rain started falling about 6.30PM. It made for good breathing but slippy running conditions. This wasn’t helped by being asked to run on the paths in certain spots with racers on.

Paul ran a strong race and continued to stretch out a lead.  Paul came home first with Paul Duffy taking second place. Trevor Sweeney was with the leading group. Myself and Michael were fighting it out for 4th for most of the race.

In the end it was a clean sweep for Sportsworld winning both the mens and womens races and continuing their dominance of the event. Results below.

Pos Bib Name Sex Age Time
1 1746 Paul O’ Connell Mal 32 00:26:48
2 1038 Paul Duffy Mal 29 00:26:49
3 1435 Trevor Sweeney Mal 37 00:26:57
4 3 Gareth Murran Mal 28 00:27:49
8 1845 Michael Cunningham Mal 32 00:28:22
12 372 Edward Mc Entee Mal 42 00:29:00
14 5 Caitriona Jennings Fem 29 00:29:06
80 342 Stephanie Bergin Fem 29 00:33:20

Awaking to the, now, all too familiar sound of rain drumming against the window I was relieved not to hear water flowing around my bed. Wrapping the duvet tightly about me I pondered what was in store and secretly hoped that today’s Dublin Intermediate Cross Country Championships would be called off. Alas, it takes more then a flood of biblical proportions to stop a Dublin Athletics Board Cross Country Race.

Arriving with Mike Cunningham at Tymon shortly after 1pm, it didn’t bode well to find the Children of Lir resting on a lake formed at a bend in the course.

Paul Duffy and Ronan Merrick trotted up to tell us that we had 10mins before the mens race so with an air of controlled panic we made a bit of a dash down to the start. The great advantage of being late is you don’t need to bother about warming up and you don’t have to keep going to the toilet. One by one the rest of the mens team, Gareth Murran, Trevor McSweeney and Colm Kennedy arrived – with minutes to spare.

Unfortunately, due to our lateness, we missed the ladies race. I did bump in to Ciara, Helen and Louise, and I know that Ruth had another very strong run – well done to all on what must have been ‘Character Building’! In fact Ciara told me that she felt like she had just completed an Iron Man competition.

And so to the mens race… We are assembled ready to go when, is it a bird, is it plane – no, it’s Mark Dunne doing the 100m dash to the start line. Harry’s anxious to get this one started – there’s no messing about ‘toe behind the line’ this time – everyone just wants to get this over so we can go home. BANG and there off!

The underfoot conditions were the worst I’ve experienced over the two years of Cross Country I have raced. The opportunities to run were limited to a few short sections on the higher section of the course – but for the most part it was trudging through deep muck or standing water – up to 25cm in places.

Paul Duffy tore off with the leaders followed by Mike, Trevor, Ronan, Garret and Mark. Colm and I fought a rear-guard action – objective: Try not to be last. After a week of warm-weather, high altitude training in Lanzarote great things were promised by our elite – on reflection, perhaps a bog snorkelling trip to Yorkshire would have been more beneficial?

After the first lap I lost sight of our elite runners and settled down to run with Colm, exchanging the lead between us as the course rose and fell. We worked well together for the first two laps but then I lost contact with him and ran on my own. Passing through half way I could see Garret dropping back through the field and tried to give chase. By that stage I had developed a pretty bad stitch in the lower abdomen and was also dropping back, and was never within 30m of him.

A steady stream of runners passed me on the 3rd and 4th laps and I had nothing in the tank to stay with them. In the last 500m a Rathfarnham runner went by and I used him to take me home – just about holding off the following pack and sneaking by him on the line as an added bonus. Colm followed a couple of seconds later.

Top of the Sportsworld pile was Mike, who secretly loves running in slop, followed by an impressive Trevor in his Cross-Country debut. For full results check the Dublin Athletics Board Website – in about a month.

Thanks to Sportworld faithful for their supporter – the conditions may have been harder on you then on us. The cheers were certainly appreciated if not acknowledged.

For racepix395 photos click here.

Report By
Paul Mitchell

Lorna the Longford lass shows ‘em how it’s done

Phoenix Park, Sunday October 11th – The magazine fort was the setting for Sunday’s Dublin novice cross country championship. Glorious sunshine and hard under footing at the famous Münich lap meant that each race went off like the proverbial clappers – and stayed that way for 3k/6k for the girls and guys races respectively. While meant for beginners, novice competitions represent a huge step up from Meet and Train or BHAA competitions, and the pace can be shocking for debutants to championship racing. However that didn’t bother our Lorna, who set the pace from the gun to get away from a possibly record turnout of over 70 girls and 12 teams. At 1k (3:15), she remained in a group of 6 hardy competitors who didn’t want to leave without silverware. After one lap (at the bell), she piled on the pressure and the only one able to live with this was Rathfarnham WSAF’s Carole Pauli. A tactical race between the two was looking on the cards when they turned back into the forest with 1k left. Lorna was having none of it though, running with an exuberance and confidence that surprised most of us. Turning the last corner with 350m left and the wind behind her, she finished like an express train to take the biggest victory of her less than 4 year old career.

Lorna also led the red and white to team gold, where we had all 4 girls in the top 10 thanks to brilliant displays from Louise, Mairead and Susan. Also representing the club with honour were Ann, Helen and Barbara; gaining valuable experience from the occasion. From the event, all girls will have discovered what it takes to succeed at championship level, and that you get nothing without hard work and dedication.

Dublin Novice Cross Country 3000m Women’s Individual Result 2009

Position Name Club Time
1 Lorna Quinn Sportsworld 10:03
8 Louise Nolan Sportsworld 10:31
9 Mairead O Callaghan Sportsworld 10:33
10 Susan McDonnell Sportsworld 10:37
42 Ann Sweeney Sportsworld 12:58
56 Helen Dixon Sportsworld 13:22
61 Barbara McIntyre Sportsworld 13:48

Dublin Novice Cross Country 3000m Women’s Team Result 2009

Position Club Points
1 Sportsworld AC 28
2 Donore Harriers 42
3 Clonliffe Harriers 70

The men’s team were represented by more experienced athletes, and were touted by some to be team medal prospects before the start. However illnesses, pre entered athletes not turning up without any prior notice and a competitive field full of well managed people coming up from the junior ranks put pay to this. Nevertheless, we came an impressive 5th out of 15 teams, beating many of the traditional cross country powerhouses. Around 100 athletes went to post, and our brightest prospect Paul Duffy led his team home. Hovering on the periphery of the top 10 for most of the race, the legs went in the final lap; but Paul can be very happy with his place well inside the top 20. Performances of the day for the men’s team were a joint effort between Mikey & Paul Mitchell, as both ran very sensible races to come through in the top 30 and 40 respectively.

The scoring was completed by Gareth who ended just outside the top 40. Colm wasn’t far behind, and while he found that the step up from IMRA races to this level is a huge one, he will find that our cross country practice on Saturday mornings will make things a lot easier. The karate kid Kildare man Colin McCarthy ran a fine race to end up in the top 60, with Donegal man Liam McFadden just behind. Mark Dunne was going well until he felt hamstring pain which forced his race to come to a premature end.

The day ended with a few celebratory pints in Rody Boland’s. Championship wise, next up in the Dublin Intermediates XC which takes place on the last Sunday in November in Tymon Park, which usually is an easier task than the novice for some reason. We may also have Sean in action in the Dublin U18s at the magazine fort next Sunday.

Dublin Novice Cross Country 6000m Men’s Individual Result 2009

Position Name Club Time
1 Dave Fitzmaurice Clonliffe 18:24
16 Paul Duffy Sportsworld 20:14
27 Mikey Cunningham Sportsworld 20:48
38 Paul Mitchell Sportsworld 21:21
41 Garrett Murran Sportsworld 21:26
46 Colm Kennedy Sportsworld 21:54
59 Colin McCarthy Sportsworld 22:20
61 Liam McFadden Sportsworld 22:30
DNF Mark Dunne Sportsworld N/A

Dublin Novice Cross Country 6000m Men’s Team Result 2009

Position Club Points
1 Clonliffe Harriers 20
2 Rathfarnham WSAF 41
3 Donore Harriers 53
4 Dundrum South Dublin 112
5 Sportsworld AC 121

Race report by Packie

To start off we had the only junior member of Sportsworld racing for us. And boy did he do us proud. Sean Wall ran under 17/18/19 and had a great run. He finished in 3rd place overall.
Well done Sean.

Next we had our ladys Intermediate race 4k. The leading group pulled away very quickly in the early part of the race. Two of our girls Adele and Crona went with them. Adele moved up to second place and fought very hard and finished in 3rd place, Crona was the next home in 7th place followed by Ciara Foster and Claire O’Reilly (who are not long back in training) Our girls had a great run and brought a bronze medal home. Well Done.

To finish off we had Mens Intermediate race 8K. This race was highly highly competive. Our lads did very well. First home was Ronan Merrick, following by Jacob Splawski and Hugh Kearney.

Well Done to all.

Race Report by
Orlagh Fleming

Two sets of photo’s for you all

Dublin Novice Cross Country 2008

Dublin Novice Cross Country 08

And video!!

The girls start. The loudest starting gun ever, “and can people please keep the course clear”.

The men’s start

And the finish (thanks to jakub for providing the pedal power)

Our track girls the Brady sisters were out in force last night running the 800 metres and did our sportsworld colours proud. First home Aoife Brady in a time of 2.18.56, followed in seventh place Crona Brady in a time of 2.26.25.

Well done girls, great run.
(race report by Orlagh Fleming)

Senior Women, 14th place Lucy Darcy time of 18.10, 21st place Helen White time of 19.11, 24th place Sandra Armstrong time of 19.18 and finishing very close to sandra great finish 25th place Kathleen O’Callaghan time of 19.19.

Senior Men Result not yet up on dublin athletic website. Great run had by all first home was Eanna Cunnane, Phil Gannon, Paul / Packie and Ronan, Sean Wall had a good run in his age group finishing In 9th. Place and made it onto The Dublin Team.

Sean Wall won the under 17 race comfortably – he led from the start and sauntered home with a huge lead on the rest of the pack.

The Women’s race was 2 laps, or 4K, and Stephanie Bergin led the team home to a 3rd place finish, while also winning an individual bronze herself. Jackie O Hagan was our 2nd runner home followed by Louise Nolan / Helen Dixon / Kim Masuda / Jenny Maher.

Team Places > Stephanie Bergin 3rd / Jackie O Hagan 18th / Louise Nolan 19th / Helen Dixon 24th / Kim Masuda 30th / Jenny maher 39th.

The men’s race was 5 laps, or 10K, and the SportsWorld guys narrowly missed out on 3rd place in the team event. Eanna Cunanne picked up an individual silver, while Ed McEntee and Ronan Merrick took 11th and 12th, with Jakub Splawski and Will Greensmyth also running.

The girls team got silver medals in their event. The scoring team members were Stephanie Bergin (8th), Louise Nolan (15th), Crona Brady (20th) and Ciara Foster (26th), backed up by Kim Masuda, Claire O’Reilly and Linda Killeen.

Unfortunately the men’s team didn’t place in the team event, however Eanna Cunnane did place 3rd in the men’s race. The rest of the mens team were Ronan Merrick, Colin Bolger, Michael Cunningham, Owen O’Brien, Will Greensmyth, Brian Conway and Colin Mahon.

Also a special congratulations to Sean Wall who placed 5th overall in the under 16-19 category and was 2nd in his age group.