April 19^th – Raheny

IN GLORIOUS spring sunshine, quiet Raheny residential roads were transformed into the national stage for clubs to roll out their team tactics and let the best four early season on-form mid distance athletes battle it out for the National Road Relay title.

Images from the recent national 10k in Navan

The drama started early with the Women’s Masters race, the first of the day, ending in a thrilling battle between Helen Leonard of Rathfarnham WSAF and Denise Ryan of Raheny Shamrocks. The Raheny team of Annette Kealy and Catherine Leavy were just behind the Aoife O’Connor and Donna Mahon duo from Rathfarnham as the final one mile leg got under way. Under a hundred meters from home, Helen found top gear and looked strong as she crossed the white line ahead of Denise. Incidentally this wasn’t the finish line and Denise stepped across the second white line to win gold for the Raheny team. Aideen Downs posted a 5:34 mile to help Sportsworld to take bronze.

As the men’s masters got underway the officials decided a finishing tape might be in order, so off to search in the vans they went. Niall Coppinger meanwhile was coming through the first mile in blistering pace to hand over to Davey Byrne and it became clear that the Tallaght AC team came here on business. The miles of this course aren’t exactly miles and Davey ran the 2 mile (and the rest) leg in under 10 minutes to hand over to James Crowley who kept the strong Raheny challenge courtesy of Damien Martin on the last leg three seconds adrift. This was Tallaght’s race and evidently, from the trio’s jubilant reaction at the finish line this was a very sweet victory indeed.

The senior women didn’t disappoint in keeping this incredible day of athletics at fever pitch. The result was a foregone conclusion as Hazel Murphy breezed through the first mile in 5:03 for Dundrum South Dublin, to hand over a lead that Linda & Aoife Byrne were never going to relinquish and the Byrnes, running out on their own, wrapped the National Road Relay Women’s title up in a course record breaking time of 21:06. Annette Kealy was on hand once again to help Raheny to continue their medal bonanza with Susan Byrne & Loraine Manning posting 5:23 and 5:10 miles respectively to capture silver. Eagle AC made the long train journey from Cork worthwhile with a worthy bronze performance, covering the 4 mile course in 22:04.

Raheny Shamrocks were again producing the drama as a superb team of Mark Kirwan, Kevin Moriarty, Vinny Mulvey and Richard Corcoran dominated the senior men’s race from start to finish and (not to be outdone by the DSD women) broke the 8-mile course record in 37.33. As if to further reinforce the Master’s point that Tallaght AC were here to announce their arrival as top class athletes, Thomas Fitzpatrick and Anthony Leghio ran 9:30 and 4.25 legs to hand over to Sean Connolly the task of catching Vinny Mulvey who was 13 seconds ahead. It was never going to happen, but Sean put in a nonetheless impressive 14:28 for the 3 mile leg and Eoin Dunne crossed the line for Tallaght to capture the first senior medal finish here in the club’s history.

Olympic 800m runner Thomas Chamney helped the Crusaders team to bronze and his teammates Eugene O’Neill, Alan O’Brien and Garrett Coughlan denied Rathfarnham from producing another medal-winning Paul Fleming finish. Paul & team finished 7 seconds adrift in fourth. Last years winners, Clonliffe finished in fifth.

The day certainly belonged to Raheny, with medals in every event, scorching performances by Mark Kirwan and Vinny Mulvey and a new course record to boot.

April 26^th – Navan

Only seven days later, another national title was down for decision and all roads led to Navan (not that there were any signposts or anything) for the National 10k Road Championships. The turnout was large with 325 athletes completing the two lap course. It was Sean Connolly and Vinny Mulvey that set the early pace and the two looked inseparable for the first lap, but the long drag uphill on km 6/7 was really where Connolly started to stretch a lead, which he managed to hold through the narrow country back roads before the long straight with Claremont Stadium in sight.

“I was happy with the way the race went, I came here confident and I felt I had it in the legs to push on and finish the race out”

Connolly of Tallaght AC strode the last hundred meters on the track finish to claim his first National Title and a sensational victory with 14 seconds to spare from Vinny Mulvey in second who posted 30.36 with Mick Clohessy following in third at 31.13. The silver and bronze from the Raheny teammates ensured another national team gold for Raheny with Brian Leahy (12^th) and Simon Ryan (15^th) completing the scoring for the north Dublin club.

Barry Minnock of Rathfarnham WSAF and Thomas Fitzpatrick of Tallaght AC were fourth and fifth respectively. Thomas’ performance helped Tallaght on their way to a team silver, which put the icing on a great week for the club. Letterkenny also had cause for celebration with a solid performance to claim bronze.

Kerry Harty may have been the year’s best advertisement for knee high socks as the Newcastle AC athlete (Newcastle in Co. Down, by the way) had a super run to easily win the National Women’s title in a time of 34.38. Catriona Jennings of Rathfarnham WSAF, continued her recent pb setting form posting a time of 35.24 for a well deserved silver medal, 12 seconds ahead of Pauline Curley who took bronze.

In the master’s men, Tallaght AC seem to have made winning national gold their new weekend activity and dually collected as planned. North Laois weren’t far off the mark, only a minute adrift overall, with Rathfarnham WSAF snapping at their heels 8 seconds further back. In the corresponding women’s category the finish wasn’t as close. Tullamore Harriers AC had a convincing margin over Rathfarnham WSAF who in turn had almost 8 minutes to spare from Donore Harriers.

With this week’s exhilarating athletic action, the road championship racing is pretty much on ice till the Half Marathon in the early days of September. Club’s attention will inevitably turn to track and field, but there could be a profitable sideline in running evening master classes for Tallaght and Raheny, should they be so inclined.

Action from the start of the relay