Niamh Allen wins the Dublin 1500m senior championship and there's reward for a Crusaders coach at the Tokyo Olympics

8/8/2021

Niamh Allen

It was a week where temperatures have returned to more normal levels and this weekend the usual strong westerly and blustery wind has picked up again, but still we have little to report on the road racing scene south of the border, with the exception of a 10 mile race in Westmeath and a 10k down in Kerry, and we continue to hope that there will be a relaxation of training restrictions and numbers allowed to race at some point in the near future.

There have been some bright lights on which to report, particularly on the track and in ways that may have been unexpected. Normally, if one were to mention Crusaders and the Olympic games in one breath it would probably be in relation to Olympians Ronnie Delany, Caroline O’Shea, or, more recently, Thomas Chamney. One doesn’t instinctively think of coaches in this regard. However, this week we learned that in Tokyo Jasmine Camacho-Quinn from Puerto Rico took the gold medal (her country’s first ever on the track) in a thrilling and dramatic win over the World record holder Kennie Harrison in the 100mH and she credited her success to her coach, Crusaders’ John Coghlan. John only took on coaching Camacho-Quinn in 2020 and his impact has been dramatic. He has been a key figure in Irish athletics for some time, being nominated for athletics coach of the year in 2012, and having also coached Paul Hession at the London Olympics (Hession holds the Irish records in the 100m and 200m). Many congratulations to John for this accolade from his gold medal winning athlete!

Wednesday evening witnessed the 5th graded Dublin track meet, this time on the newly refurbished track in Lucan, with a mixture of 400m and 1500m races. Crusaders had 10 athletes at the meet hosted by Lucan Harriers and we were rewarded by Niamh Allen with a win in the grade A1 of the women’s 1500m. The win meant that Niamh had captured the Dublin senior championship. In a well-paced race, where early on Niamh found herself in third place behind runners from Trinity and Clonliffe in a 6-strong event and where she was obliged to reel in a front runner who had established a reasonable lead over the field, she won in a time of 4:34.49, the 2nd placed runner coming in just under 3 seconds behind her. Many congratulations to Niamh who has had a slightly disjointed last few months with nagging injuries.

We had another winner of a race on the night. This time it was recorded by Elliott O’Beirne in the men’s B1 1500m where he led home the other 5 runners in the race in a time of 4:25.35. Dermot Kenny also ran well in the men’s AB1 race of the same distance. In a field of 10 athletes, Dermot ran 4:07.65 for 2nd place, just 26/100 off the winning time recorded by Bros Pearse’s Conor Deane. In the other 1500m races, Léa Braud and Ciara Lynch came home, respectively, in 4th and 5th places in the women’s B1 event and there were also some excellent runs in the men’s events. Léa ran 5:10.36, whilst Ciara ran a PB time of 5:13.33. In the men’s C1 1500m Luke Davis ran 4:51.93 for 9th place, whilst in the D1 edition, Sam Carvill, running his first ever 1500m, placed 2nd in 4:51.61, followed by Brendan Glynn in 5:30.02.

Earlier in the evening Henry Griffin ran in the C1 edition of the 400m and was 4th in his race in a time of 57.62.

Further afield, also on Wednesday evening, a few of our tracksters headed up to the fast Mary Peters track in Belfast for a night of sprints. They included Matt Behan who ran in heats of both the 100m and 200m. In the 100m, in a field of 4 athletes, he won the race in a time of 10.82, whilst placing 5th in the 200m in 22.06. Rhianna McCarthy won her 200m heat in 24.77 with Roisin Dobey coming home in 4th place in 26.49. Rhianna also placed 4th in her heat of the 100m in 12.02 (the winner from Donore running 11.66), whilst Roisin placed 2nd in her 100m race in 12.89. Max Doyle and Conall Gallagher also ran in a heat of the 200m with Max crossing the line in 2nd place in 23.19 behind the race winner from Gowran who ran 22.84. Conall took 5th place in the same heat in 23.49.

Finally, Fearghal O'Hare ran in the 5th of 7 heats of the 800m where he placed 7th in a strong international field in a time of 1:52.69. The winner from Leicester ran 1:49.84.

As mentioned above, there were two road races that took place this weekend in which we had 3 members of the club participate. Both races took place this Sunday. The first was the Banna 10k, organised by St. Brendan’s AC of Ardfert, which took in Banna Strand and Ardfert on a largely flat one looped course. Our sole participant, Maurice Kelter, broke 40 minutes for the first time in a while, running 37:32 for 13th place in a field of 106, behind race winner Michael Bruton of Leevale, whilst having to attack a strong headwind in the last 4km. Maurice was running on the back of a 1:32 half marathon result in a triathlon last weekend in Co. Tyrone. The second was the much-anticipated Westmeath race, the Kilbeggan 10 miler which had some high profile athletes involved, including John Travers and Mick Clohisey. The race was staged in 2 waves, the first of 197, with the second wave of 183 runners heading out 30 minutes later. The quality of the field was underlined by the fact that over 60 runners broke the hour, including our Ciarain Kelly who ran a PB time on the relatively flat course of 57:37 for 33rd place. John Gallagher ran in the second wave placing 144th in that wave in a time of 1:36:38, which meant he was 341st overall. Members will be interested to learn that Sean Murphy of United Striders, who trains with us, ran 1:02:51 for 87th place (88th overall on a net basis).

There are 4 mountain races on which to report. The first was the race in Devil’s Glen in Wicklow on Wednesday evening. The race had 124 finishers who completed a figure of 8 course following the Seamus Heaney and Waterfall walks in the Glen. The distance was 8k with a climb of 283m over relatively easy terrain. 4 Crusaders took part in the race and all did well. In an event won by Barry Minnock (33:43) and Caoimhe Daniels (38:57), Becky Quinn placed 22nd overall and 2nd in the women’s race in a time of 40:01. Becky was also the first F45 across the line. Donatas Jocius took 10th spot and 2nd M35 in 38:04, whilst John McAuley placed 12th and 1st M40 in 38:28. Finally, Brian McGuckin finished in 34th place and 3rd M50 in 41:46.

Over this weekend 3 of our members headed over to Co. Mayo to take part in back to back races as part of the Connacht championships. Brian McGuckin and Michael Maughan took part in both races, Mweelrea and Nephin, whilst Daniel Lowe limited himself to the first, up to Mweelrea and back.

The Mweelrea race was described as an out-and-back event with a climb of 766m and a race distance of 10.7k over difficult terrain (and in misty conditions), starting and finishing in the Silver Strand car park. In the 37-strong event, Brian finished in 15th place in a time of 72:07, behind race winner Jonny Steede (53:37). Daniel was next, in 82:23, followed by Michael in 25th place with a time of 85:17. The following day, Brian and Michael embarked on the 2nd race up to the top of Nephin and back. Race instructions contained the following: "If the mist is down, bring a compass. It is very easy to descend on the wrong side of the mountain". The race distance was 5.3k with a climb of 736m, again on difficult and tricky terrain. Steede was once again the winner of the event with its 25 runners. Brian placed 13th in 75:12, followed by Michael who placed 19th in 84:15.

Finally, there was an IMRA race on Sunday in Kilbrannish Co. Carlow on John's Hill. The race involved a climb of 500m within a race distance of 12k on moderate terrain, described as a mix of single trails, open mountain and fire roads. There were 3 large loops and one smaller one for the runners to negotiate. We had just the one runner in the race, Donatas Jocius and he nearly won it. In a field of 39 runners, Donatas was only 1 second off first place in a time of 53:11. Well done to him.

The report would not be complete without commentary on the parkruns, even though there aren’t any currently taking place in Ireland. Sarah Lyons and Phelim Murray are continuing their tour of the English countryside and this weekend found themselves in North Devon, participating in the Woolacombe Dunes parkrun. For a parkrun, the degree of difficulty in the course was on the high side, the name being indicative of the sandy challenge, so that their times were not flattering, but at the same time a great experience and preparation for the cross-country season to come. In a field of 205 participants, Sarah was able to place 47th overall and 4th female finisher in 26:52, whilst Phelim took 61st place in 28:09. Meanwhile, Michael Wycherley joined 356 other participants in Medina on the Isle of Wight, taking 11th place in blustery conditions in a time of 19:12.

As usual, if we have missed any results, please let us know. Many thanks.

Devil’s Glen (IMRA race) (124)
Overall place Name Cat. Place Guntime
1 Barry Minnock 1 00:33:43
15 Caoimhe Daniels 1 00:38:57
Crusaders AC runners
10 Donatas Jocius 00:38:04
12 John McAuley 00:38:28
22 Becky Quinn 00:40:01 (2)
34 Brian McGuckin 00:41:46
Full results here: https://www.imra.ie/events/results/id/2069
Mweelrea (IMRA race) (37)
Overall place Name Cat. Place Guntime
1 Jonny Steede 1 00:53:37
11 Elizabeth Wheeler 1 01:08:15
Crusaders AC runners
15 Brian McGuckin 01:12:07
23 Daniel Lowe 01:22:23
25 Michael Maughan 01:25:17
Full results here: https://www.imra.ie/events/results/id/2070
Nephin (IMRA race) (25)
Overall place Name Cat. Place Guntime
1 Jonny Steede 1 00:49:18
15 Laura Flynn 1 01:16:11
Crusaders AC runners
13 Brian McGuckin 01:15:12
19 Michael Maughan 01:24:15
Full results here: https://www.imra.ie/events/results/id/2072
Banna 10k (106)
Overall place Name Cat. Place Guntime
1 Michael Bruton 1 00:32:19
26 Susan Glennon 1 00:40:37
Crusaders AC runner
13 Maurice Kelter 00:37:32
Full results here: https://www.facebook.com/StBrendans-AC-Ardfert-487366758092480
Kilbeggan 10 mile (380)
Overall place Name Cat. Place Guntime
1 Ryan Creech 1 00:48:50
20 Grace Lynch 1 00:55:46
Crusaders AC runners
33 Ciarain Kelly 00:57:37 (PB)
341 John Gallagher 01:36:38
Full results here: https://www.myrunresults.com/events/kilbeggan_10_mile/4133/results
John’s Hill (IMRA race) (39)
Overall place Name Cat. Place Guntime
1 Johan Muller 1 00:53:10
8 Caroline Harney 1 01:03:57
Crusaders AC runner
2 Donatas Jocius 00:53:11
Full results here: https://www.imra.ie/events/results/id/2074