Crusaders men and women qualify for National League final in style

10/7/2018

Ciara Barry

A bit of history was made on Sunday with both men's and women's team qualifying for the national league final, the women after an 8 year break. Further analysis on this below.

Last Wednesday saw the 6th edition of the Dublin Athletics graded meets held in Tallaght stadium. It was quite tough for the athletes, particularly early on, as smoke from a local gorse fire in the Dublin mountains was in the air around the track. It was, therefore, surprising to see PBs, of which there were probably several. Rachael Yorke ran a 7 second PB improvement in her 2nd 800m (grade B1 race) with a 2nd place finish in 2:27.28. Ines Fetahovic took 4th in a time of 15.25 in the grade C 100m. A number ran more than one event, with the 800m and 5,000m on offer. They included Frank Halligan and Sean Murphy of United Striders (who trains with the club). In the 800m grade C2 Frank was just out-sprinted for the line by John McAuley, with John taking 5th in 2:18.85 and Frank 6th in 2:18.99, whilst in the D1 race Sean placed 6th in 2:30.28, followed by Paul Kelly (9th in 3:22.48). Brendan Glynn took on the C1 800m, a higher grade for him than usual, placing 7th just outside his PB in 2:27.92 after finding the conditions tough and unfortunately being detached from the field early on. Frank then went on to the mixed 5,000m grade C and was joined by Sean, Joe McDermott and Michael Wycherley, with John deciding to give it a miss. This time, Frank managed to take 1st place in what might be a PB time for him of 16:51.51 after leading from the gun and stretching the field, followed home in 4th by Joe, just behind Una Britton, breaking 17 minutes for the first time (16:58.46) after having joined Frank with 3 laps to go but falling back on the last lap, and by Michael in 5th (17:09.50). Sean followed in 8th place (17:47.21).

On the same evening, IMRA staged a race on Sorrell Hill in the Wicklow Mountains on a 9.45km course that involved a 350m climb, starting on forest trail and finishing on open mountain. As usual, the seemingly unbeatable Becky Quinn (49:06) won the women’s race, taking 16th spot overall in a field of 146 runners, followed by Gavan Doherty (23rd in 51:51), Anthony O’Reilly (25th in 52:20), Jim Stagg, making a welcome return to racing (33rd in 54:03) and Berndt Heim (125th in 73:08).

On Saturday, we had a few Crusaders make a pilgrimage to Achill Island for the annual running of the half marathon and 10k events there, this year in unusually decent weather. We had one runner in the challenging half, Darran Lovely, who is signed up for the Dublin marathon. In a field of nearly 430 runners, Darran placed 120th in 1:49:39, clearly a tempo-based outcome. Meanwhile in the 10k, a race won by ex-Crusader Ray Hynes, Matt Cranley put in a sterling effort, pushing his buggy round the hilly course and coming home in 14th place (in a field of 442) in a time of 44:33. Jean Devlin and Miriam Logan also ran extremely well, with Jean taking a podium spot in 3rd place (22nd overall, in 46:00) and a likely PB, and Miriam finishing in 7th place (44th overall, in 48:09) with a PB. Ruth Dwyer (59th overall, 14th woman, in 49:20) would have fared better had it not been for the fact that a runner needed medical attention during the race and, being a doctor, Ruth nobly responded quickly to the cause.

Also on Saturday, at least 2 members of the club joined more than 900 runners in the Clontarf 5 mile, which takes place on sand, concrete, asphalt and grass. In benign, but warm, conditions, both ran brilliantly to finish on the podium. Kiera placed 2nd woman (6th overall) in a time of 33:07, whilst Niamh Aspell took 3rd spot in the women’s race (11th overall) in 34:35.

This brings us to Sunday and the second round of the National track and field League. Having performed well in Belfast a couple of weeks earlier, both our men’s and women’s teams needed to produce similar performances in their respective divisions on the track and infield in Athlone Institute of Technology on Sunday afternoon. The men, in the premier division, were bidding to get into the final on 19th August as one of the top 8 clubs from 2 pools and then hope to win the final in order to represent Ireland in a European club competition, whilst the women, in the first division, on their return to the event were hoping to qualify for the final as a top 8 club in the division and ultimately place 1st or 2nd in the final and be promoted to the premier division.

After the first round, both teams were looking to be well-placed, but because the final positions would be determined by the aggregate scores of the two rounds, nothing was certain. There were also significant challenges in finding members to take part in the different disciplines, with a restriction as to how many events in which one athlete can participate.

It was a really exciting day and the outcome remained in doubt almost to the end, but when the smoke had cleared the men had likely qualified in 3rd place overall, whilst the women were likely 3rd as well. Hats off to the two team captains, the multi-talented Gary Park and similarly versatile Lisa Shine.

Indeed, both took part in several events, leading by example, and Lisa may well have found a new metier when she placed 2nd in the race walk! Lisa also took part in the relays. Meanwwhile, Gary took on not only the relays, but also the 400mH. We took valuable points in all these events.
There were wins on the day for Mary Horgan in the 400m (with a time just six-tenths of a second off her PB set in Belfast in the previous round), Alix Hughes in the 100mH and shot put, Nick Ennis in a photo finish with two other fast finishing athletes in the 400m, Ciaran Donnelly in the hammer, Johnny Bell in the discus and Oisin Taylor in the triple jump. Then we had several 2nd places too, with Lisa in the walk, Ciara Barry in the 100m and in the 400mH (where she did enough early on to hold on at the end), Alix and Mary, respectively, in the 200m and 800m, James Kelly in the shot, Patrick Gilceava in the javelin and Ciaran in the 56lb for distance. 3rd place finishes went to Maria Hetherington bravely stepping into tackle the hammer and discus and for Catherine Thornton, who was up against two strong athletes (international Shona Heaslip and deceptively fast national masters runner Ashling Smith) in the 3000m. Fearghal O’Hare also ran extremely well to place 3rd in the 800m and Oisin changed disciplines slightly to take 3rd spot in the long jump. 4th place finishes went to Rachael Yorke in the 1500m, Ines Fetahovic in the triple jump (who also placed 5th in the long jump) and Ciara in the javelin, along with Ciaran in the 110mH, Garret Dunne in 3000m S/C (he also placed 6th in the 1500m) and Peter Murphy in the high jump. Peter also took part in the 100m and 200m, placing 6th in both. Finally, Bob Lyne placed 5th in the competitive race walk whilst Gary also took 5th spot in the 400mH. So the teams acquitted themselves well and picked up points wherever they could. We did not do much damage to the opposition in the relays, because the relay teams were pretty much scratch squads with not much experience. The 4x100m relay even included James Cottle who had turned up to spectate but took part on the second leg of the race with no warm up and less than 10 minutes notice, but who helped by his presence to contribute to the points tally nonetheless. At least the baton was carried around safely! When it comes to the final, hopefully there will be no need for such a contribution.

The last part of the report is dedicated as usual to the parkruns on Saturday. Adrienne Jordan was our standout performer, with a women’s first place finish (11th overall) in 18:33 in St. Anne’s. Peter O’Toole also ran well in the same parkrun, placing 5th in 18:11. Derek Lawlor took 2nd place in Cabinteely in 18:52, with Tom Dunne in 6th place in 21:03. Another podium place went to Gerard White in Porterstown who took 3rd spot in 19:54. Elsewhere, Aoife Quinn took 5th place (14th overall) in 25:44 in Tolka Valley, whilst Kate Murray also placed 5th (40th overall) in 23:37 in Bushy park, followed by Mairead Cashman (155th overall, 39th woman, in 29:08) and Bob Lyne, race-walking (203rd in 33:10). Orlaith de Burca was another 5th place finisher (49th overall), this time in Shanganagh where she ran 25:06. In the same event, Luke Davis took 6th in 19:04, followed by Neil Brown in 53rd (25:29). Kris Ryan placed 4th (21st overall) in the 102-strong field in Coomera, Australia in a time of 23:34, whilst Olwyn Dunne took a trip to Leamington Spa and placed 21st (202nd overall) in 25;46. Mairin and Lisa Shine ran side by side in Ballincollig, placing 259th and 260th overall respectively (81st and 82nd women finishers) in 36:31 and 36:32. Lastly, we had a significant turnout in Poolbeg. Sharon Woods was yet another 5th-placed finisher (39th overall) in 24:33 and Sharon was joined by Gillian Curran (7th woman, 47th overall in 26:07), the fast-improving Emma O’Mahony (55th overall, 11th woman, in 26:58), David O’Donnell (16th in 21:20), Fin Goulding (19th in 21:39), Colm Foley (33rd in 24:13), Ciara McElligott (94th overall, 30th woman, in 33:24) and Fiona Bane, mopping up the walkers (114th overall, 42nd woman, in 52:31).

Achill 10K (442)
Overall place Name Cat. Place Chiptime
1 Ray Hynes 1 00:35:09
11 Siobhan Delaney 1 00:43:56
Crusaders AC runners
14 Matt Cranley 00:44:33
22 Jean Devlin 00:46:00 (3)
44 Miriam Logan 00:48:09 (PB) (7)
59 Ruth Dwyer 00:49:20 (14)
Full results here: https://www.popupraces.ie/achill-half-marathon-and-10k-2018/#1_841826
Achill Half marathon (429)
Overall place Name Cat. Place Chiptime
1 Gary O’Hanlon 1 01:10:05
21 Amanda Watters 1 01:32:10
Crusaders AC runner
120 Darran Lovely 01:49:39
Full results here: https://www.popupraces.ie/achill-half-marathon-and-10k-2018/#1_841826
Clontarf 5 mile (920)
Overall place Name Cat. Place Chiptime
1 Iosef Guther 1 00:29:09
5 Zoe Quinn 1 00:32:27
Crusaders AC runners
6 Kiera Roche 00:33:07 (2)
11 Niamh Aspell 00:34:35 (3)
Full results here: http://redtagtiming.com/
IMRA Sorrell Hill (146)
Overall place Name Cat. Place Chiptime
1 Brian Furey 1 00:43:02
16 Becky Quinn 1 00:49:06
Crusaders AC runners
23 Gavan Doherty 00:51:51
25 Anthony O’Reilly 00:52:20
33 Jim Stagg 00:54:03
125 Berndt Heim 01:13:08
Full results here: https://www.imra.ie/events/view/id/1604
St Anne’s Parkrun #240 (374)
Overall place Name Cat. Place Chiptime
1 Geoff Burns 1 00:16:05
11 Adrienne Jordan 1 00:18:33
Crusaders AC runners
5 Peter O’Toole 00:18:11
11 Adrienne Jordan 00:18:33 (1)
Full results here: http://www.parkrun.ie/stannes/results/weeklyresults/?runSeqNumber=240
Poolbeg Parkrun #45 (114)
Overall place Name Cat. Place Chiptime
1 Gary Farrell 1 00:17:53
9 Shona Ni Fhloinn 1 00:19:59
Crusaders AC runners
16 David O’Donnell 00:21:20
19 Fin Goulding 00:21:39
33 Colm Foley 00:24:13
39 Sharon Woods 00:24:33 (5)
47 Gillian Curran 00:26:07 (7)
55 Emma O’Mahony 00:26:58 (11)
94 Ciara McElligott 00:33:24 (30)
114 Fiona Bane 00:52:31 (42)
Full results here: http://www.parkrun.ie/poolbeg/results/weeklyresults/?runSeqNumber=45
Bushy Dublin Parkrun #71 (267)
Overall place Name Cat. Place Chip time
1 Charlie McGowan 1 00:17:47
21 Siobhan McNamara 1 00:21:40
Crusaders AC runners
40 Kate Murray 00:23:37 (5)
155 Mairead Cashman 00:29:08 (39)
203 Bob Lyne 00:33:10
Full results here: http://www.parkrun.ie/bushyparkdublin/results/weeklyresults/?runSeqNumber=71
Tolka Valley Parkrun #20 (35)
Overall place Name Cat. Place Chip time
1 Mick Bermingham 1 00:19:24
5 Fiona Byrne 1 00:23:37
Crusaders AC runner
14 Aoife Quinn 00:25:44 (5)
Full results here: http://www.parkrun.ie/tolkavalley/results/weeklyresults/?runSeqNumber=20
Cabinteely Parkrun #170 (160)
Overall place Name Cat. Place Chip time
1 Gavin Callery 1 00:18:36
15 Claire Curtin 1 00:22:12
Crusaders AC runners
2 Derek Lawlor 00:18:52
6 Tomas Dunne 00:21:03
Full results here: http://www.parkrun.ie/cabinteely/results/weeklyresults/?runSeqNumber=170
Shanganagh Parkrun #170 (150)
Overall place Name Cat. Place Chiptime
1 Scott McCann 1 00:17:05
3 Sarah Baryga 1 00:18:31
Crusaders AC runners
6 Luke Davis 00:19:04
49 Orlaith de Burca 00:25:06 (5)
53 Neil Brown 00:25:29
Full results here: http://www.parkrun.ie/shanganagh/results/weeklyresults/?runSeqNumber=170
Porterstown Parkrun #142 (96)
Overall place Name Cat. Place Chip time
1 Alan Bernie 1 00:18:43
10 Lisa Hughes 1 00:21:10
Crusaders AC runner
3 Gerard White 00:19:54
Full results here: http://www.parkrun.ie/porterstown/results/weeklyresults/?runSeqNumber=142
Ballincollig Parkrun #106 (281)
Overall place Name Cat. Place Chiptime
1 Paul Hunt 1 00:17:38
14 Lorraine Smyth 1 00:20:27
Crusaders AC runners
259 Mairin Shine 00:36:31 (81)
260 Lisa Shine 00:36:32 (82)
Full results here: http://www.parkrun.ie/ballincollig/results/weeklyresults/?runSeqNumber=106