No caving in Fingal, Santry or the Liberties

24/7/2017

Back row: Ben Maze, Nick Ennis, Matthew Behan and Kieron Sexton; Front row: Andrew Mellon, Jason Harvey, James Woods and Kevin Woods

The Summer just gets better and better and we have witnessed and participated in some super events so far!

There was a fair representation for the club among track and field and road runners over the past few days as we had numerous members compete in the national Senior track and field championships up in Santry and more than 40 turned out for the first event in the Dublin race series, the Fingal 10K, part of the traditional build up to the Dublin marathon in October.

We start with track and field and the highlight of this weekend was the two days of action at the national Senior T&F Championships. Several crusaders made it to finals, and of those that didn’t we had a fair smattering of PBs in any event. On Saturday, Lisa Shine took part in the first heat of the women’s 800m, placing 9th behind eventual national champion and World Championships-bound Ciara Mageean. Lisa ran 2:39.50. In the third of the 3 heats, we had 3 Crusaders together with Lorraine Healy who trains with us. It was probably too big an ask to expect them to make the final, but the women ran well with Lesley-Ann Doughan running strongly at the finish to take Fiona Shine who had led the small group behind the front runners for much of the race. Both recorded PBs, with Lesley-Ann registering 2:25.71 for 5th place and Fiona, 2:26.11 for 6th. Lorraine also recorded a PB in 7th (2:26.62), just ahead of Grainne Regan in 8th (2:35.34).

In the men’s 800m heats, Kieron Sexton ran a PB in the first race by hanging on to Mark English (1:54.14 to place 3rd) and qualify as a fastest loser. Kevin Woods duly won his heat with a good lead throughout (1:54.00) with Michael O’Conor back in 7th (2:01.87), demonstrating his usual strong finish to a race and just off his PB. The final the following day saw Kevin take up the lead towards the end of the race but he was overhauled in the finishing straight, coming home in 5th place (1:52.67) and Kieron took 10th spot in 1:56.70, no doubt spent after his previous day’s courageous effort.

Men’s captain Michael Kiely was on his own in the men’s 1500m heats, finishing in 12th place in 4:06.76, whilst, in the women’s race which went straight to final without any heats, Niamh Boland took 11th spot in 4:44.50, followed by Orla Kennedy in 16th with a PB of 4:53.39.

There were some spectacular performances among our sprinters. Jason Harvey was our lone participant in the men’s 400mH, but he ran well in the first round on Saturday, placing 2nd in 55.05 and then acquitted himself well against the tough opposition of Thomas Barr and Paul Byrne to take bronze in the final, with a great 51.19 finish. Then, in the men’s 110mH final (an event without heats), Matthew Behan narrowly missed out on the title with a PB run of 14.09 (his second PB in as many weeks), the winner running 13.94, Matt having been in contention from gun to tape. We managed to get 4 Crusaders into the men’s 400m final on Sunday, with some convincing runs in the heats the previous day. Nick Ennis and Brian Murphy came through as fastest losers from their respective heats, Nick having run a likely PB of 48.53 and Brian, 49.00, behind heat winner, newcomer Andrew Mellon (48.59). Ben Maze won his heat in 48.14. So, onto the final, in which we witnessed a fabulous spectacle behind national champion Brian Gregan, off to the World Championships next week. Andrew (47.44) ran an explosive last 100m to overhaul Ben (47.64) and take silver, with Ben taking home the bronze. Brian, with a tough inside lane draw for a tall runner, ran his heart out in his 16th consecutive appearance in a national 400m championship final (and twice winner of the title) to place 5th in a season’s best 48.32 and Nick took 8th spot in 49.31. Indeed, the club dominated the distance over the day as we fielded two men’s teams for the 4x400m relays, with the team of Ben Maze, Nick Ennis, Andrew Mellon and Jason Harvey taking the title and the team of Matthew Behan, Kieron Sexton, James and Kevin Woods, placing third.

Ciara Barry was our lone female sprinter, running gamely to place 4th in the second of 2 heats (1:01.66) and qualify for the final as a fastest loser. Ciara then went on to take 8th place in the final with a marginally faster time of 1:00.45.

We also had some success in the field events over the weekend. Adam McMullen successfully defended his national title in the long jump with a leap of 7.74m (having placed 2nd earlier in the week in the Cork City Games in windy conditions with a jump of 7.49). Colin Quirke, having been unable to defend his 2015 title in the 2kg discus last year, came back to win it this year with a throw of 55.12m, one of only 2 valid throws (out of 6) in the final analysis, the other also being enough to take the title. Alix Hughes contested the women’s long jump, but, unfortunately, did not qualify for the final, recording only one valid jump (4.36m) of the three to determine qualification. Finally, James Kelly took 8th spot in the 7.26kg shot put with a throw of 12.40m.

Staying with track and field, a few of our clubmates headed over the Morton stadium on a wet and windy evening last Wednesday for the 7th Dublin Athletics graded meeting. Patrick Gilceava won the long jump with a leap of 6.35m, whilst Alix Hughes took 2nd in the women’s 200m B race in a time of 27.34. In the women’s 1500m C race, Darina Scully ran 5:27.01 in finishing 5th, whilst, in the B event, Fiona Shine won easily in a time of 5:03.14. We had a runner in each of the two races in the men’s 200m B standard. Sam Bolger won race 1 in 24.90 and John Nugent placed 7th in race 2 in a time of 26.21. Finally, we had 6 runners in 4 of the 1500m graded races. In the D event, Brendan Glynn narrowly failed to improve on his PB when he placed 8th in 5:20.27, whilst, in the C event, Brian Carroll did get a PB by winning it in 4:37.90, followed by Frank Halligan (6th in 4:45.48) and John Thuillier (8th in 4:49.99) in a field of 16 runners. Alan Sheehy took on the B grade, placing 10th in 4:40.10, whilst Michael Kiely ran in the A event as a warm up for the national championships, taking 10th in 4:22.92.

In mountain running during the week, Ali Onur Uyar was our lone representative in the Dublin mountains in a 60-strong race known as the Kippure Handicap. Ali, completed the tough race in 1:31:55 to place 34th. It was held on a tough 9.27km course with a climb of 300m and in wet and windy conditions.

There were two notable road races in the Dublin area during this period. On Thursday, more than a 1,000 runners took to the streets around Kilmainham and the Liberties, among them at least 13 Crusaders. The event was the annual Liberties run and this year was clearly a 4 mile event. Orla Drumm successfully and convincingly defended her title (some 80s ahead of 2nd place), placing 10th overall in 22:34 behind overall race winner John Coghlan (18:59) who narrowly beat Freddie Sittuk (19:00) and Sean Hehir (19:05) and there were also great runs from Crusaders James Moran (6th in 22:11) and Joe Walsh (17th in 23:26). Top 50 places among the men went to TJ Bourke (30th in 24:58) and Gearoid Grogan (32nd in 24:59). Marius McNicholas (56th in 26:21), Luke Haran (65th in 26:34) and Lorcan Wogan (144th in 29:16) were our other men in the race. On the women’s side, Orla was followed by Katie McElroy (98th overall, 15th woman, in 27:52), Ruth Dwyer (104th overall and 17th woman, in 27:59), Rachel Yorke (147th overall, 29th woman, in 29:25) and Olwyn Dunne (181st overall, 39th woman, in 30:20).

The second big road race of the weekend was the Dublin Race Series Fingal 10K, which has become a permanent and popular fixture in the racing calendar after about 5 years now. It is run on a fast and largely flat course, with slight drags at 4km and then in the final kilometre. Conditions were damp before the start with some fine drizzle, but by the time the race started at 10 conditions were dry, if a little humid and clammy in temperatures in the high teens and the sun briefly shone about 20 minutes into the race. The hose shower from Swords’ fire brigade in the 9th kilometre was greatly appreciated by all!

The race attracted more than 3,000 runners, at least 40 of them Crusaders, a huge turnout for the event and noticed by the race commentator, at the start and as we finished, with some top level performances, more than half of our number finishing in the top 500 overall and as many as 14 running under 40 minutes. Several of our participants are training for the Dublin marathon and will have got some confidence from this event.

Adrienne Jordan was our first female athlete home, taking 4th place (136th overall) in 38:23 behind Gladys Ganiel and Niamh Devlin. Adrienne was followed by newcomer Kiera Roche (168th overall, 7th woman) in 39:18 and by Catherine Thornton (211th overall, 10th woman) in 39:51. Next home for the club was Nina Holmes, on her way back to pre-injury form, with a PB time of 42:09 (374th overall, 28th woman), followed by Dee Ni Chearbhaill (513th overall, 49th woman, in 43:39). There were PBs, too, for Katie McElroy (608th overall, 72nd woman, in 44:50), Ruth Dwyer (715th overall, 95th woman, in 45:57), both having run in the Liberties Run on Thursday and Ciara Lehane (844th overall, 126th woman, in 47:01). Other good results came from Ciara McElligott (724th overall, 100th woman, in 45:51), Olwyn Dunne (906th overall, 143rd woman, in 47:52), Darina Scully (933rd overall, 155th woman, in 48:10), Niamh Quinn (1,046th overall, 190th woman, in 48:03), Aisling Dilworth (1,070th overall, 199th woman, in 48:35), Orlaith de Burca (1,073rd overall, 200th woman, in 48:55), Carina Davidson (1,093rd overall, 207th woman, in 48:24), Ela Szkamruk (1,241st overall, 252nd woman, in 50:19), Aisling O’Connor (1,580th overall, 392nd woman, in 53:050, Jean Devlin (1,812th woman, 484th woman, in 55:17), Siobhan Russell (1,907th overall, 543rd woman, in 55:53), Lucy Collender (1,976th overall, 578th woman, in 57:24) and finally, special mention should be made of Maria Pertl, looking magnificent as she sprinted towards the line, in her 7th month of pregnancy (2,812th overall, 1,144th woman, in 1:07:54).

On the men’s side there were some terrific runs, with a good spread of PBs, particularly towards the front of the race. The overall event was won by John Coghlan, overpowering Freddie Sittuk for the second time in 4 days, but this time with a more comfortable gap of 7 seconds. The first male Crusader home was John Mulvihill, who had an outstanding run to place 9th in a PB time of 32:53. He was followed by Ciaran (registered as Ciara!) Diviney, who also obtained a PB in 33:19 with his 14th placing. Ciaran additionally distinguished himself with first place in the O/40 age category. There were also PBs for the next two athletes home: Frank Halligan (34th in 35:19) and Joe McDermott (54th in 36:06, a more than 50 seconds improvement over the recent Dunshaughlin 10k). Frank Hague was next (58th in 36:15), followed by Karl Walsh (64th in 36:26), Paul Flynn (93rd in 37:21), Joe Walsh (140th in 38:29), newcomer Brian Scanlan (154th in 38:55), Brian Leonard (getting back to his old form, 159th in 39:07), Diarmuid Byrne (161st in 39:09) and Gearoid Grogan (like Joe, in his second race in 4 days) (201st in 39:42). Niall O'Connell was our only real casualty of the race. He was well-placed at the half-way mark but a recurring ankle injury forced him to stop. Niall was able to finish, however, after helping a few other runners themselves to get to the line.

Our visually-impaired colleague, Donnacha McCarthy was guided expertly by Dave Tilly to a 9–minute PB improvement, coming home in 40:39 (259th place), and they were followed by a storming Dave Tuohy (287th in 40:50). Next came James Cottle, in his first race back from recent injuries to both of his Achilles (302nd in 41:24). Whilst still far from past form, James outsprinted another O/60 runner in the last 100m to claim 3rd place in that age category. Other runners in the race included Phelim Murray (326th in 41:48), Tom Dunne (338th in 41:51), Robbie Moore (481st in 43:10), Denis Murphy (496th in a PB time of 43:23) and newcomer Ian Hennessy with a PB (946th in 46:57), to complete the complement of runners in the race.

Over the weekend some of our clubmates, particularly those training for an Autumn marathon, took part in some long distance events. Newcomer Fergal Condron ran a PB in the Killarney half. In a field of nearly 1,100 runners, Fergal placed 63rd in a time of 1:29:54, his first time under 90 minutes. Then, in Donabate on Saturday, newcomer Barry McGuire and Paul O’Meara ran in a half marathon organised by the East of Ireland marathon club. They were joined by 56 other runners and Barry took 2nd place in 1:28:54, with Paul in 4th, treating the event as a training run, finishing in a time of 1:32:35.

As a recovery run from last week’s 24-hour effort, Leo Lundy took on the international Achill back-to- back marathon event around the toughest and one of the most scenic routes in the country. In extremely warm and sunny conditions, Leo came mid-pack both days in a reasonably modest field (results yet to be published).

In Queensland, Australia. Kris Ryan took part in a 24-hour event around an iconic 600m trail in the historic village of Coobulture. Kris is to be congratulated as she managed 103 miles for 1st place overall in the race.

John Fitzsimons and his daughter Lorraine ran in the Lord Mayor's 2 mile run in Raheny last Tuesday, with John finishing in 17:40 and Lorraine, 19:28.

There is news that soon there may be a park run in Sean Moore Park. Watch this space. In the meantime, Crusaders took part in 9 parkruns on Saturday morning. Colm Kernan and john Fitzsimons joined more than 320 other runners in St. Anne’s, Raheny, with Colm placing 10th in 19:13 and John still going strong just before his 80th birthday with a 28:54 finish (195th place). Sharon Woods placed 35th overall, 7th woman, in 25:56 among the 123 runners in Tymon. Fiona Bane ran in Cootehill, placing 11th overall, 4th woman, in 25:04. The field was a modest 38. Then, in Hartstown, Brendan Kieran made a rare foray into park-running, placing 22nd out of 57 in a time of 24:44, whilst Neil Brown took on the hilly Cabinteely along with nearly 140 other participants, placing 33rd in 24:36. Kevin Flynn was also a solo representative for the club in Porterstown, where he ran 27:20 to finish in 44th spot out of 70 runners. Darina Scully and Olwyn Dunne prepared for the following day’s 10K race with a trip around Bushy Park in Bushy Dublin. Of 123 runners, Darina placed 67th overall, 21st woman, in 28:25, whilst Olwyn took 69th spot overall, 23rd woman, in a time of 28:28. In the 2nd running of Fairview, 6 of our members explored this new event. Aoife Clark was first home, finishing in 14th spot overall (out of nearly 90 runners), 2nd woman, in 22:52, followed by Aoife Quinn (19th overall, 4th woman, in 24:43), Sarah Lyons (51st overall, 15th woman) in 29:30, Phelim Murray (52nd overall, same time), the game Maria Pertl (56th overall, 18th woman, in 31:28) and Diarmuid Byrne (57th in 31:29), the last 3 athletes preparing for the Fingal 10k the following day. Finally, Rob Cross took time off from a wedding down in limerick to run in the parkrun there, coming home as first finisher in a time of 16:53 in a field of 74 runners.

Race Series Fingal 10K
Overall place Name Cat. Place Chiptime
1 John Coghlan 1 00:30:38
41 Gladys Ganiel 1 00:35:33
Crusaders AC runners
9 John Mulvihill 00:32:53 (PB)
14 Ciaran Diviney 00:33:19 (PB)
34 Frank Halligan 00:35:19 (PB)
54 Joe McDermott 00:36:06 (PB)
58 Frank Hague 00:36:15
64 Karl Walsh 00:36:26
93 Paul Flynn 00:37:21
136 Adrienne Jordan 00:38:23 (4)
140 Joe Walsh 00:3829
154 Brian Scanlan 00:38:55
159 Brian Leonard 00:39:07
161 Diarmuid Byrne 00:39:09
168 Kiera Roche 00:39:18 (7)
201 Gearoid Grogan 00:39:42
211 Catherine Thornton 00:39:51 (10)
259 Donnacha McCarthy 00:40:39 (PB)
260 Dave Tilly 00:40:39 (guide)
287 Dave Tuohy 00:40:50
302 James Cottle 00:41:24
326 Phelim Murray 00:41:48
338 Tomas Dunne 00:41:51
374 Nina Holmes 00:42:09 (PB) (28)
481 Robbie Moore 00:43:10
496 Denis Murphy 00:43:23 (PB)
513 Dee Ni Chearbhaill 00:43:39 (49)
608 Katie McElroy 00:44:50 (PB) (72)
622 Ciara Lynch 00:44:57 (77)
715 Ruth Dwyer 00:45:57 (PB) (95)
724 Ciara McElligott 00:45:51 (100)
844 Ciara Lehane 00:47:01 (PB) (126)
906 Olwyn Dunne 00:47:52 (143)
933 Darina Scully 00:48:10 (155)
946 Ian Hennessy 00:46:57 (PB)
1046 Niamh Quinn 00:48:03 (190)
1070 Aisling Dilworth 00:48:35 (199)
1093 Carina Davidson 00:48:24 (207)
1241 Ela Szkamruk 00:50:19 (252)
1580 Aisling O’Connor 00:53:05 (392)
1812 Jean Devlin 00:55:17 (484)
1907 Siobhan Russell 00:55:53 (543)
1976 Lucy Collender 00:57:24 (578)
2812 Maria Pertl 01:07:54 (1144)
Full results here: http://tdleventservices.co.uk/race-results.php
Liberties 4 miles
Overall place Name Cat. Place Chiptime
1 John Coghlan 1 00:18:59
10 Orla Drumm 1 00:22:34
Crusaders AC runners
6 James Moran 00:22:11
10 Orla Drumm 00:22:34 (1)
17 Joe Walsh 00:23:26 (PB)
30 TJ Bourke 00:24:58 (PB)
32 Gearoid Grogan 00:24:59 (PB)
56 Marius McNicholas 00:26:21
65 Luke Haran 00:26:34
98 Katie McElroy 00:27:52 (PB) (15)
104 Ruth Dwyer 00:27:59 (PB) (17)
144 Loran Wogan 00:29:16
147 Rachel Yorke 00:29:25 (PB) (29)
181 Olwyn Dunne 00:30:20 (39)
Full results here: http://www.championchipireland.com/results/index.php
Killarney Half Marathon
Overall place Name Cat. Place Chiptime
1 Niall O’Riordan 1 01:12:10
14 Sinead Tangney 1 01:19:58
Crusaders AC runner
63 Fergal Condron 01:29:54 (PB)
Full results here: http://www.sportsplits.com/Home/Results
Cootehill Parkrun #142
Overall place Name Cat. Place Chiptime
1 Ronan McDermott 1 00:20:28
4 Oonagh Duffy 1 00:23:02
Crusaders AC runner
11 Fiona Bane 00:25:04 (4)
Full results here: http://www.parkrun.ie/cootehill/results/weeklyresults/?runSeqNumber=142
Hartstown Parkrun #140
Overall place Name Cat. Place Chiptime
1 Efrem Gidey 1 00:17:07
10 Noelle Capewell 1 00:22:14
Crusaders AC runner
22 Brendan Kieran 00:24:44
Full results here: http://www.parkrun.ie/lhartstown/results/weeklyresults/?runSeqNumber=140
Porterstown Parkrun #92
Overall place Name Cat. Place Chiptime
1 Gavin Byrne 1 00:18:06
16 Bronagh O’Hara 1 00:21:49
Crusaders AC runner
44 Kevin Flynn 00:27:20
Full results here: http://www.parkrun.ie/porterstown/results/weeklyresults/?runSeqNumber=92
St Anne’s Parkrun #187
Overall place Name Cat. Place Chiptime
1 Bernard Roe 1 00:16:55
43 Michelle Langan 1 00:21:49
Crusaders AC runners
10 Colm Kernan 00:19:13
195 John Fitzsimons 00:28:54
Full results here: http://www.parkrun.ie/stannes/results/weeklyresults/?runSeqNumber=187
Cabinteely Parkrun #116
Overall place Name Cat. Place Chiptime
1 Barry Thornton 1 00:18:23
17 Rita Moran 1 00:23:05
Crusaders AC runners
33 Neil Brown 00:24:36
Full results here: http://www.parkrun.ie/cabinteely/results/weeklyresults/?runSeqNumber=116
Tymon Parkrun #156
Overall place Name Cat. Place Chiptime
1 Gavin Curran 1 00:18:28
17 Niamh Murphy 1 00:23:56
Crusaders AC runner
35 Sharon Woods 00:25:56 (7)
Full results here: http://www.parkrun.ie/tymon/results/weeklyresults/?runSeqNumber=156
Limerick Parkrun #78
Overall place Name Cat. Place Chiptime
1 Rob Cross 1 00:16:53
10 Shona Ni Fhloinn 1 00:20:46
Crusaders AC runner
1 Rob Cross 00:16:53
Full results here: http://www.parkrun.ie/limerick/results/weeklyresults/?runSeqNumber=78
Bushy Dublin Parkrun #17
Overall place Name Cat. Place Chiptime
1 Desie Shorten 1 00:19:44
2 Derval Devaney 1 00:19:59
Crusaders AC runners
67 Darina Scully 00:28:25 (21)
69 Olwyn Dunne 00:28:28 (23)
Full results here: http://www.parkrun.ie/bushydublin/results/weeklyresults/?runSeqNumber=17
Fairview Parkrun #2
Overall place Name Cat. Place Chiptime
1 Simon Befort 1 00:18:44
11 Aine Ni Ghloinn 1 00:22:40
Crusaders AC runners
14 Aoife Clarke 00:22:52 (2)
19 Aoife Quinn 00:24:43 (4)
51 Sarah Lyons 00:29:30 (15)
52 Phelim Murray 00:29:30
56 Maria Pertl 00:31:28 (18)
57 Diarmuid Byrne 00:31:29
Full results here: http://www.parkrun.ie/fairview/results/weeklyresults/?runSeqNumber=2