May the Force be with You

25/5/2025

L-R: Yvonne Macauley, Gillian Earley, Nina Holmes, Miriam Logan, Rebecca Fleming

Several of our track-focused clubmates headed to Brussels this weekend for a 2-day international meet with a huge field of athletes from all over the world involved.

In the men’s and women’s “pre-program” on Saturday, with multiple heats in each event, Hugo Magee ran 47.68 for 2nd place in his heat, whilst Leo Gormley won his heat in 52.17. In the 100m, Charlie Bastow placed 2nd in 11.31 in his heat, Saad Ashraf (running under the Canadian flag) placed 4th in his heat in 11.48, whilst Masahiro Watanabe (running under the flag of Japan) won his heat in 11.39. Meanwhile, in the women’s 400m, Emily Lyne won her heat in 58.20.

On Sunday, Valentinos Goularas (running under the Greek flag) placed 8th in his 110mH race in 15.85, whilst in the women’s 400mH Emily won her heat in 61.88. We had 4 athletes compete in the men’s pre-program 200m, with Luke Timlin winning his race in 21.85, Charlie placing 6th in his event in 22.98, Saad placing 4th in his heat in 23.48 and Masahiro taking 7th spot in his race in 23.91.

There were plenty of major highlights on the roads this week too.

Tuesday saw the annual running of the Bob Heffernan and Mary Hanley 5k, a fast and furious race in Enfield with a field of some quality, given that it was the 4th race in the Peugeot Series. We had at least 8 athletes taking part, with at least 4 recording PB times. In the field of 694 (of which at least 375 broke 20 minutes), Rory O’Kennedy placed 66th in a PB time of 16:15, an improvement of more than 50 seconds on his previous best. Rory was followed by Ciarain Kelly (76th in 16:30) and by Brian Regan (96th in a PB time of 16:42). Alan Sheehy was next across the line (145th in 17:23) and he was followed by Mikel Crisostomo (164th in 17:31), James Sherry (223rd in 18:20), Oisin Browne (270th in a 43 seconds improved time of 18:50) and by Dee Ni Chearbhaill (466th and 85th in 21:44).

Also, on Tuesday evening, Aitor Arribas Velasco and his partner Marta Cuesta Olle (who plays an invaluable role as our graphic designer nowadays in the Docklands 5k) joined 1200 other runners in the Cork BHAA John Buckley 5k. Aitor placed 448th in 22:37, with Marta running 29:00 for 917th place overall. Meanwhile, Conor Fahy ran in another Galway 5k race series event, this time in Maree, where, in a field of 612, he ran 20:23 for 84th place.

Then, on Friday, a contingent of our female membership took part in the Naas AC 5-miler, conducted on two laps of country roads with a few drags. The women’s race was actually won by Yvonne Macauley, although initially she was placed second, the perennial problem of a man running under a woman’s number coming in ahead. Quite embarrassing for the female masters athlete who had given up her number. Yvonne placed 32nd overall in a great time of 31:11 in a total field of 340, with Nina Holmes following her across the line in 56th and 6th in another excellent time of 33:03. Gill Earley was next (79th and 11th in 34:25), followed by Miriam Logan (82nd and 13th in 34:32) and Rebecca Fleming (93rd and 15th in 35:23).

Rebecca went on to compete on Sunday in the 222-strong field in the Straffan 5k, placing 20th and 3rd in 21:02.

On Saturday morning we had the annual staging of the lawyers’ competition, the Calcutta 5k and 10k runs. This year, the 10k was an accurate distance (in the past it could have been perhaps 500m longer) which makes the results more helpful. We may not have had any runners in the 5k. However, we had at least 5 in the 10k race with a field of 372, running between Blackhall Place and the Phoenix Park.

Stephen Hurley placed 4th in 35:52, followed by Conor Kilkenny (9th in 36:32), Kenan Furlong (10th in a PB time of 36:40) and Ross Neill (40th in 42:30). The frequent top-of-the-table Poolbeg parkrunners were followed across the line by Diarmuid Fahey (80th in 46:40).

On the same day, we had at least three athletes take part in the annual Grocers 4-mile run around Leopardstown race-track. Phil Sykes led our contingent home in 29:22 for 52nd spot among the 506 runners overall. Phil was followed by Michael Judge (151st in 35:38) and by Joy Flaherty (180th and 64th in 36:46).

On Sunday, we had runners head up to Newry to take part in the half marathon and 10k races there. Lorraine McMahon was tackling her first half marathon on the day, placing 639th in a field of 753 and in a time of 2:11:57. Meanwhile, Ciara Regan placed 2nd behind Olympian Kerry O’Flaherty in the 553-strong field in the 10k. Ciara ran 40:08 for 35th place overall, whilst Kate Murray placed 148th and 32nd in 50:14.

We had athletes involved in both evenings (Wednesday and Thursday) dedicated this year to the Staff Relays conducted on the Acres, the Military Road and Khyber Pass, involving legs of 5k. They included James Moran (20:51), Phelim Murray (20:31), Chris Russell, one of our London exiles (16:42), Daragh O’Reilly (16:07), whose team won on Thursday evening setting a new course record, Conor Macguinness (19:35), Felipe De Sousa (20:25) and James Bradshaw (in a PB time of 21:26). There were definitely more Crusaders involved, but not all their results were captured for this report.

Further afield, midweek, one of our UK based runners, Toby Benham, ran 28:48 in the Banbury 5-mile race. Then, at the weekend, Dee Lawlor ran once again in the Transylvania 80k, completing the distance in 16:46:34. Then in Spain, two of our exiles, Cristian Vilchez Ceballos and Esther Requena Ferri, ran in the Carrera Urbana de Antequera, a 5k street race in that town in Southern Spain. Cristina ran 17:28, whilst Esther ran 20:00 for 2nd place in the women’s race. Finally, one of our French exiles, Raphael Crueyze, ran in the Chateau de Vincennes 10k in Paris on his birthday, running 38:36 for the distance.

There were two races in the mountains this week, the second of which, Crotty’s Lake, a race over Comeragh Mountain in Co. Waterford on Saturday morning over a distance of 8k and a climb of 410m, was used by Donatas Jocius to prepare for his upcoming trip to Sicily and he won the 57-strong event.

This was also the case on Wednesday, in 152-strong field competing in the 9.4k race around Prince William’s Seat in Co. Wicklow. In a race involving a climb of over 400m, Donatas placed 3rd overall in 50:00. He was followed by Becky Quinn who won the women’s race in 56:20, and then by Paul McNamara (12th and 2nd M35 in 58:55), Jason Kehoe (27th and 3rd M45 in 60:41), Brian McGuckin ( 32nd and 3rd M55 in 61:20), Caoimhe Dempsey (61st and 7th female finisher in 66:53), Gavan Doherty (82nd in 71:12) and Paul Flynn, pacing another runner (124th in 87:09).

Conditions were said to be humid on Saturday morning in the Poolbeg parkrun. The usual heavy weight protagonists being involved in the Calcutta Run, it was left to Adrian Groarke and Sharon Woods to carry the Crusaders flags there, with Adrian leading the sizeable contingent of at least 33 of our clubmates, many of them Richard Kavanagh’s lane 1 running group, in a field of 243 across the line in 8th spot in 19:44. Adrian was followed by James Sherry (12th in 20:02) and then by Paul Campbell (18th in 21:20), John Lohan (19th in 21:43), Stephen Mulligan (27th in 22:19) and Charles Cartledge (30th in 22:33). In placing 32nd overall and 4th female finisher, Sharon Woods was our first female runner home in a time of 22:46 and she was followed by Kabir Sala (34th in 22:55) just ahead of Bo Chicoine (41st in 23:58). Ciara Hutchinson was next (59th and 8th in 24:45), followed by Franky Keane (62nd in 24:56), Ailish Hassett (64th and 11th with yet another PB of 25:00) just ahead of Aitor Arribas Velasco (65th in 25:01) who was alongside Joanne Carey (66th and 12th in the same time).The next runner to cross the line was Tanja Narancic (72nd and 15th in 25:23), followed by Josie Ward (78th and 17th in 25:48).

Tara Murphy came home in 26:23 in 90th and 24th spots, followed by Neil Brown (101st in 26:58), Iseult Ni Chuinneagain (108th and 34th in 27:09), Divya Sardana (109th and 35th in 27:11), Carmel Higgins who incorporated the parkrun into a longer run (likely 121st overall in 27:41), Lorraine McMahon (132nd and 47th in 28:19), Anna Hernick (148th and 56th in 29:12), Mari Hansen (150th and 57th in 29:17), Máirín Shine (158th and 63rd in 29:55), just ahead of Kevin Kenny (159th in 30:05), followed by Paul E. Kelly (178th in 31:23), Lisa Branigan (186th and 80th in 32:22), Darren Kelly (200th in 33:40), and then by Emer Kenny who was pacing Lisa Shine for next week’s WMM (203rd and 94th and 204th and 95th in the same time of 34:26), Marie-Claire Daly (216th and 104th in 35:53), with Carina Davidson tailwalking whilst helping Lisa out with her buggy. The lane 1 running group then retired to a local eatery for a celebratory brunch!

There weren’t many other parkruns on which to report. Aoife McCarthy and Áine Kenny headed to Cardiff, where, in a field of 815, Aoife placed 149th and 17th in 23:30, followed by our recent débutante ultra marathoner who placed 225th and 32nd in 24:53. Darina Scully paced the 27-minutes runners in Malahide. In a field of 362, she placed 157th and 46th in 26:48, whilst, in Poppintree, Paul F. Kelly placed 6th in 19:57. The field there measured 169. Ger Buckley joined 147 other runners in Cabinteely, where he placed 36th in 26:21, whilst Cynthia Perucca ran alongside 232 other participants in Fairview, placing 152nd and 50th in 31:18.

Meanwhile, in Mungret Park in Limerick, with its field of 135, Kev Moore took 5th spot in 19:51, followed by Luke Haran who placed 26th in 22:58., whilst, in Tolka Valley Park, Maria Pertl placed 29th and 9th in 30:17 in a field of 57.

Over in the UK, John Mulvihill placed 6th in a time of 17:35 in the 577-strong field in Peel in Salford, whilst Thom Martini joined 400 other runners in Osterley Park, where he placed 34th in 22:15 and Toby Benham joined a field of 820 in Coventry where he placed 156th in 23:36.

Much further afield, on a trip to Asia, Fiona Shine joined a field of 93 in the Hikarigaoka koen in Nerima, a suburb of Tokyo, where she placed41st and 6th in 24:29.

Cork BHAA John Buckley 5k (1202)
Overall place Name Cat. Place Guntime
1 Denis Hegarty 1 00:14:36
30 Holly Carroll 1 00:16:13
Crusaders AC runner
448 Aitor Arribas Velasco 00:22:37
Full results here: https://www.corkbhaa.com/2025/05/20/john-buckley-5k-results-2025/
Galway Series Maree 5k (572)
Overall place Name Cat. Place Chiptime
1 Evan O’Rourke 1 00:15:49
32 Sarah Collins 1 00:18:29
Crusaders AC runner
84 Conor Fahy 00:20:23
Full results here: https://redtagtiming.com/results/2025_5kmSeries_5_Maree.xlsx#
Bob Heffernan and Mary Hanley 5k (694)
Overall place Name Cat. Place Chiptime
1 Kevin Kelly 1 00:19:25
67 Mary Mulhare 1 00:16:17
Crusaders AC runners
66 Rory O’Kennedy 00:16:15 (PB)
76 Ciarain Kelly 00:16:30
96 Brian Regan 00:16:42 (PB)
145 Alan Sheehy 00:17:23
164 Mike Crisostomo 00:17:31
223 James Sherry 00:18:20
270 Oisin Browne 00:18:50 (PB)
466 Deirdre Ni Chearbhaill 00:21:44 (85)
Full results here: https://www.popupraces.ie/race/bob-heffernan-mary-hanley-5k-road-race-2025/
Naas AC 5k (340)
Overall place Name Cat. Place Chiptime
1 Peter Tuohy 1 00:25:52
32 Yvonne Macauley 1 00:31:11
Crusaders AC runners
32 Yvonne Macauley 00:31:11 (1)
56 Nina Holmes 00:33:03 (6)
79 Gillian Earley 00:34:25 (11)
82 Miriam Logan 00:34:32 (13)
93 Rebecca Fleming 00:35:23 (15)
Full results here: https://www.popupraces.ie/race/naas-ac-5-miler-2025/
Calcutta Run 10k (372)
Overall place Name Cat. Place Chiptime
1 Christopher O’Reilly 1 00:34:17
39 Siobhan Nugent 1 00:43:28
Crusaders AC runners
4 Stephen Hurley 00:35:52
9 Conor Kilkenny 00:36:32
10 Kenan Furlong 00:36:40 (PB)
40 Ross Neill 00:42:30
80 Diarmuid Fahey 00:46:40
Full results here: https://www.popupraces.ie/race/calcutta-run-2025/
Grocers Fun Run 4-miler (506)
Overall place Name Cat. Place Chiptime
1 Kevin Donagher 1 00:22:05
15 Charlotte Kearney 1 00:25:56
Crusaders AC runners
52 Phil Sykes 00:29:22
151 Michael Judge 00:35:38
180 Joy Flaherty 00:36:46 (64)
Full results here: https://www.popupraces.ie/race/grocers-fun-run-dublin-2025/
Straffan 5k (222)
Overall place Name Cat. Place Chiptime
1 Michael Comer 1 00:16:55
7 Shannon Denagher 1 00:18:51
Crusaders AC runner
20 Rebecca Fleming 00:21:02 (3)
Full results here: https://www.popupraces.ie/race/straffan-10k-5k-fun-run-walk-2025/#1_7336A4
Newry 10k (553)
Overall place Name Cat. Place Chiptime
1 Gary Crummy 1 00:30:58
13 Kerry O’Flaherty 1 00:36:38
Crusaders AC runners
35 Ciara Regan 00:40:08 (2)
148 Kate Murray 00:50:14 (32)
Full results here: https://www.championchipireland.com/index.html#results

Newry Half marathon (753)
Overall place Name Cat. Place Chiptime
1 Garry Morrow 1 01:13:49
43 Hayley McAteer 1 01:26:21
Crusaders AC runner
639 Lorraine McMahon 02:11:57 (PB)
Full results here: https://www.championchipireland.com/index.html#results
IMRA Prince William’s Seat 9.4k (152)
Overall place Name Cat. Place Guntime
1 Derek Crammond 1 00:48:42
10 Becky Quinn 1 00:56:20
Crusaders AC runners
3 Donatas Jocius 00:50:00
10 Becky Quinn 00:56:20 (1)
12 Paul McNamara 00:58:55
27 Jason Kehoe 01:00:41
32 Brian McGuckin 01:01:20
61 Caoimhe Dempsey 01:06:53 (7)
82 Gavan Doherty 01:11:12
124 Paul Flynn 01:27:09
Full results here: https://www.imra.ie/events/results/id/2660
IMRA Crotty’s Lake 8k (57)
Overall place Name Cat. Place Guntime
1 Donatas Jocius 1 00:36:30
16 Angela Tobin 1 00:49:46
Crusaders AC runner
1 Donatas Jocius 00:36:30
Full results here: https://www.imra.ie/events/results/id/2671
Malahide Parkrun (362)
Overall place Name Cat. Place Guntime
1 Siobhan Eviston 1 00:18:04
2 Wesley O’Brien 1 00:18:06
Crusaders AC runner
157 Darina Scully 00:26:48 (46)
Tolka Valley Parkrun (57)
Overall place Name Cat. Place Guntime
1 Maxime Bernard 1 00:18:23
7 Aleksandra Sobota 1 00:23:25
Crusaders AC runner
29 Maria Pertl 00:30:17 (9)
Poppintree Parkrun (169)
Overall place Name Cat. Place Guntime
1 Malcolm Kiplagat 1 00:18:44
11 Denise Callaghan 1 00:21:30
Crusaders AC runner
6 Paul F. Kelly 00:19:57
Poolbeg Parkrun (243)
Overall place Name Cat. Place Guntime
1 Ashley Hayes 1 00:17:50
17 Sophie Coman 1 00:21:11
Crusaders AC runners
7 Adrian Groarke 00:19:44
12 James Sherry 00:20:02
18 Paul Campbell 00:21:20
19 John Lohan 00:21:43
27 Stephen Mulligan 00:22:19
30 Charles Cartledge 00:22:33
32 Sharon Woods 00:22:46 (4)
34 Kabir Sala 00:22:55
41 Bo Chicoine 00:23:58
59 Ciara Hutchinson 00:24:45 (8)
62 Franky Keane 00:24:56
64 Ailish Hassett 00:25:00 (PB) (11)
65 Aitor Arribas Velasco 00:25:01
66 Joanne Carey 00:25:01 (12)
72 Tanja Narancic 00:25:23 (15)
78 Josie Ward 00:25:48 (17)
90 Tara Murphy 00:26:23 (24)
101 Neil Brown 00:26:58
108 Iseult Ni Chuinneagain 00:27:09 (34)
109 Divya Sardana 00:27:11 (35)
[121 Carmel Higgins 00:27:41 (XX)]
132 Lorraine McMahon 00:28:19 (47)
148 Anna Hernick 00:29:12 (56)
150 Mari Hansen 00:29:17 (57)
158 Máirín Shine 00:29:55 (63)
159 Kevin Kenny 00:30:05
178 Paul E. Kelly 00:31:23
186 Lisa Branigan 00:32:22 (80)
200 Darren Kelly 00:33:40
203 Emer Kenny 00:34:26 (94)
204 Lisa Shine 00:34:26 (95)
216 Marie-Claire Daly 00:35:53 (104)
235 Carina Davidson 00:49:46 (118)
Mungret Parkrun (135)
Overall place Name Cat. Place Guntime
1 Padraig Vaughan 1 00:19:09
14 Maria Maher 1 00:21:53
Crusaders AC runners
5 Kev Moore 00:19:51
26 Luke Haran 00:22:58
Fairview Parkrun (233)
Overall place Name Cat. Place Guntime
1 Seán Cahill 1 00:18:58
23 Seona O’Keeffe 1 00:23:13
Crusaders AC runner
152 Cynthia Perucca 00:31:18 (50)
Cabinteely Parkrun (148)
Overall place Name Cat. Place Guntime
1 Luca Fattaccini 1 00:18:42
9 Laura Lloyd 1 00:23:36
Crusaders AC runner
36 Ger Buckley 00:26:21