Strong participation and podium places in BHAA Bank of Ireland XC

14/1/2018

Barry McGuire and James Cahill

There was a significant participation by the club on Saturday in the Bank of Ireland cross country races held in Tymon Park, the first BHAA event of the year. We enjoyed 20% of a relatively modest women’s field and nearly 15% of the men’s race. The BHAA’s gain was Leinster’s loss and we only had a few individual runners on Sunday afternoon in Dunboyne’s Cow Park for the intermediates and masters championships.

By all accounts the races in Tymon went well (although one report had the women’s race taking a wrong turn at one point), in quite good, but chilly, conditions, not too much mud and the course isn’t really hilly, although it has two or three drags. The strong north-easterly winds of the morning didn’t affect the races too much either. We had 6 runners in the 2 miles women’s race in a field of 32. Niamh Corby maintained her great form by placing 3rd in 12:51 and was the first F40 home. Edel Haverty also ran well to place 8th in 13:31. Edel was followed by Serena Moloney who seems to have thrown off her recent leg injury, placing 10th in 13:41 and Serena was followed by the stalwart, Kate Murray, in 14th (14:16). Ciara Lehane took 16th place in 14:34, being followed by two newcomers to cross country racing, Miriam Logan (22nd in 15:53) and Emilie Fournier, whose bib appears, unfortunately, not to have registered a time.

The “mixed” 4 miler was altogether a larger event with 158 runners, among them 20 Crusaders. The challenge it seems was to avoid being beaten by Maria McCambridge, one of only two female runners in the race, who came in 15th overall. N his return to racing, men’s captain Michael Kiely distinguished himself with 2nd place in 22:25 and Ciaran Diviney ran well to place 7th in 23:08 (and 1st M45). Ciaran was followed reasonably closely by Albin Ingmarsson in his 2nd cross country event (9th in 23:22) and surprisingly by John Mulvihill (11th in 23:28) in his first race back from a hernia operation. Michael O’Conor (14th in 23:42) managed to get past Maria at the last gasp as she was collateral damage when he was actually targeting Michael Wycherley (17th in 23:46), who is flying right now, despite his Achilles concerns. John McAuley was next (20th in 24:01), followed by Joe McDermott (26th in 24:35) and James Cahill (31st in 24:54). Karl Walsh took 37th spot in 25:16 and he was followed by Barry McGuire, in training for the Boston marathon in April (39th in 25:24). Michael Maughan was another runner to finish inside the top 50 (40th in 25:25) and he was followed by Colm Kernan (56th in 26:52), maintaining the form he showed in the Dublin masters the previous week. The remaining runners were Pat Quill (59th in 27:04), Brendan Glynn (65th in 27:35), Tomas Dunne (74th in 27:59), Tim O’Donnell (76th in 28:02) in his 2nd ever XC race, Denis Murphy (82nd in 28:27), Robbie Moore (92nd in 28:49) and Mike McGovern (113th in 30:23).

The temperature continued to drop steadily throughout Sunday afternoon in the Cow Park in Dunboyne, but it didn’t seem to affect the runners who were on fire. The course was relatively benign (and drier) compared to previous years and, although it got churned up throughout the day, there were only a couple of tight turns which became progressively muddier and challenging with each race. The masters women went off first with Mairead Cashman and Mairin Shine representing the club in a field of 93 over 2 1,500m laps of a 3k race. As might be expected in a strong, quality field (with the winner, Dunleer's Karen Costello recording a time that would have won her silver in the women's intermediate race), they found the event challenging coming home as back markers, but they pushed hard throughout. Mairin may well have been the only F60 in the field but no medals were awarded it seems above F55. In the next event, the men’s masters’ 6k, we were represented by Jason Kehoe and David Long, both having run in Dublin the week before. This was a race involving a field of 158 and 4 laps. John Dunne, the previous week’s Dublin champion, duly did the double in Leinster. Jason ran well to place 20th (21:38) after a fast start over the first 2k and settling to have even kilometre splits thereafter. David Also ran well to come home in 131st place (26:22). The last event in which we had any participation was the women’s intermediates. Our women’s captain, Lisa Shine, turned out for us in a quality field of, however, only 39 runners, placing 35th (18:46) in what tunred out to be an extremely challenging experience for her. Well done to our plucky runners!

General participation levels in the parkruns on Saturday were, with one or two exceptions, down on the previous week, possibly as New Year resolutions start to fall by the wayside! Still, we had 20 runners out. The size of each field in Ireland is indicated below. In Glasgow Aidan Hudner continues to take part in Victoria Park’s event, placing 69th out of a field of 429 in 22:02. Dave Carter took 3rd place in Cabinteely in a time of 20:36, whilst Kieran Little, who has just started to train with the club, was first finisher in Poolbeg (18:250 ahead of 6 Crusaders. Niamh Quinn was third woman finisher in the same event (35th overall, in 24:22) and Niamh was followed by Zalan Kovacs (43rd in 25:16), Mary Dolan (77th overall, 14th woman, in 28:25), Ciara McElligott (96th overall, 22nd woman, in 32:40), Don Anderton (102nd in 35:19) and Brian Langton (104th in 35:21). The ever-improving Maria Pertl ran 28:09 (52nd overall, 12th woman) in Poppintree, followed by partner Diarmuid Byrne who was mopping up the back markers (125th in 49:45). Donal Foley ran 22:25 to place 18th in Porterstown, whilst Fiona Bane also put in a good performance to record 23:45 (95th overall, 8th woman). Fiona was followed by Lorraine Fitzsimons (296th overall, 91st woman, in 31:44). James Ryan ran 22;14 to place 42nd in the substantial field in Marlay whilst Leo Lundy and Sarah Lyons came in not too far apart in Fairview, Leo placing 34th in 25:14 and Sarah, 36th overall, 4th woman, in 25:36. Finally, Lisa Shine and Mairead Cashman prepared themselves for Sunday’s XC in Lugh Key and bush Dublin, respectively. Lisa, alongside her sister Fiona, placed 138th overall (49th woman) in 33:36, with Fiona recording the same time (139th overall, 50th woman). Meanwhile, Mairead placed 154th overall (36th woman) in a time of 29:33.

BHAA BOI XC (women’s 2 miles)
Overall place Name Cat. Place Chiptime
1 Helen Broader 1 00:12:36
Crusaders AC runners
3 Niamh Corby 00:12:51
8 Edel Haverty 00:13:31
10 Serena Moloney 00:13:41
14 Kate Murray 00:14:16
16 Ciara Lehane 00:14:34
22 Miriam Logan 00:15:53
XX Emilie Fournier 00:XX:XX
Full results here: https://bhaa.ie/events/bank-of-ireland-cc-2018/
BHAA BOI XC (men’s 4 miles)
Overall place Name Cat. Place Guntime
1 Kevin Moriarty 1 00:21:48
Crusaders AC runners
2 Michael Kiely 00:22:25
7 Ciaran Diviney 00:23:08
9 Albin Ingmarsson 00:23:22
11 John Mulvihill 00:23:28
14 Michael O’Conor 00:23:42
17 Michael Wycherley 00:23:46
20 John McAuley 00:24:01
26 Joe McDermott 00:24:35
31 James Cahill 00:24:54
37Karl Walsh 00:25:16
39 Barry McGuire 00:25:24
40 Michael Maughan 00:25:25
56 Colm Kernan 00:26:52
59 Pat Quill 00:27:04
65 Brendan Glynn 00:27:35
74 Tomas Dunne 00:27:59
76 Tim O’Donnell 00:28:02
82 Denis Murphy 00:28:27
92 Robbie Moore 00:28:49
113 Mike McGovern 00:30:23
Full results here: https://bhaa.ie/events/bank-of-ireland-cc-2018/
Marlay Parkrun #241 (424)
Overall place Name Cat. Place Chiptime
1 Cathal McHale 1 00:17:37
20 Paula Prendergast 1 00:20:57
Crusaders AC runner
42 James Ryan 00:22:14
Full results here: http://www.parkrun.ie/marlay/results/weeklyresults/?runSeqNumber=241
Cabinteely Parkrun #146 (100)
Overall place Name Cat. Place Chiptime
1 Barry Thornton 1 00:19:39
9 Deirdre Nally 1 00:22:01
Crusaders AC runner
3 David Carter 00:20:36
Full results here: http://www.parkrun.ie/cabinteely/results/weeklyresults/?runSeqNumber=146
St. Anne’s Parkrun #217 (389)
Overall place Name Cat. Place Chiptime
1 Colin Griffin 1 00:16:49
39 Aoife Linnane 1 00:21:20
Crusaders AC runners
95 Fiona Bane 00:23:45 (8)
296 Lorraine Fitzsimons 00:31:44 (91)
Full results here: http://www.parkrun.ie/stannes/results/weeklyresults/?runSeqNumber=217
Lough Key Parkrun #86 (237)
Overall place Name Cat. Place Chiptime
1 Shane Comer 1 00:19:27
25 Marta Rzepka 1 00:23:44
Crusaders AC runners
138 Fiona Shine 00:33:36 (49)
139 Lisa Shine 00:33:36 (50)
Full results here: http://www.parkrun.ie/loughkey/results/weeklyresults/?runSeqNumber=86
Bushy Dublin Parkrun #47 (246)
Overall place Name Cat. Place Chiptime
1 Tom O’Dwyer 1 00:19:38
14 Catriona Dowling 1 00:20:54
Crusaders AC runner
154 Mairead Cashman 00:29:33 (36)
Full results here: http://www.parkrun.ie/bushydublin/results/weeklyresults/?runSeqNumber=47
Poolbeg Parkrun #21 (110)
Overall place Name Cat. Place Chiptime
1 Kieran Little 1 00:18:25
22 Deborah Monaghan 1 00:22:55
Crusaders AC runners
[1 Kieran Little 00:18:25]
35 Niamh Quinn 00:24:22 (3)
43 Zalan Kovacs 00:25:16
77 Mary Dolan 00:28:25 (14)
96 Ciara McElligott 00:32:40 (22)
102 Don Anderton 00:35:19
104 Brian Langton 00:35:21
Full results here: http://www.parkrun.ie/poolbeg/results/weeklyresults/?runSeqNumber=21
Porterstown Parkrun #118 (201)
Overall place Name Cat. Place Chiptime
1 Patrick Cassidy 1 00:17:43
13 Eva Crowe 1 00:21:27
Crusaders AC runner
18 Donal Foley 00:22:25
Full results here: http://www.parkrun.ie/porterstown/results/weeklyresults/?runSeqNumber=118
Fairview Parkrun #27 (117)
Overall place Name Cat. Place Chiptime
1 Cillian O’Leary 1 00:17:30
24 Martha O’Malley 1 00:23:52
Crusaders AC runners
34 Leo Lundy 00:25:14
36 Sarah Lyons 00:25:36 (4)
Full results here: http://www.parkrun.ie/fairview/results/weeklyresults/?runSeqNumber=27
Poppintree Parkrun #167 (127)
Overall place Name Cat. Place Chiptime
1 Tom McKenna 1 00:18:20
10 Rachael McBride 1 00:21:08
Crusaders AC runners
52 Maria Pertl 00:28:09 (12)
125 Diarmuid Byrne 00:49:45
Full results here: http://www.parkrun.ie/poppintree/results/weeklyresults/?runSeqNumber=167