Track and Trace

L-R: Matt Behan, Sean Owens, Charlie Bastow and Luke Timlin

Our track and field athletes were out in force this week, participating in two events, both held at the newly-commissioned DCU-owned Morton Stadium in Santry. The first, the Dublin graded meet on Wednesday proved to be a warm-up for some of our athletes for the preliminary round of the National League on Sunday. However, for some athletes, a mix of junior, senior and masters, the League provided once again an opportunity to compete in events that would not be their disciplines and takes them well outside their comfort zones in support of the team effort.

We will start with the National League, held on a day that started out rainy, becoming sunny and warm, but later in the day experienced a terrific thunderstorm with hailstones. It was a good test for the track though, as although activity was suspended for the duration of the storm, perhaps over half an hour, the track drained well and races were convened quite quickly after it. The event, however, did run well over time because of electronic timing issues with the clock in the early part of the meet and then problems with gun and starter’s mike following the deluge. As a result, the meet may have finished about 90 minutes behind schedule.

The format this year was different from the past, with just the one preliminary round (instead of 2) involving separate races for county and club competitions. So, there were frequently 3 heats for each event, where the competitions could not be combined. There was no seeding in the preliminary round so that clubs which may have been premier division in previous years were competing against others previously premier as well as clubs that would have been previously first division. In other words, the 19 women’s clubs and 17 men’s started on a level playing field. The determination of a final for the top 8 (creating a premier division) and also for the clubs finishing 9th to 16th (in a first division) was based on the best 15 results for each club from the 21 events on offer (scoring going from 17 points for the win and 15 for second, down to 1 point for 16th place).  Crusaders women competed in 16 events, whilst our men took on 18. At the end of an exciting day both men and women have qualified for the first division final on 13 August, with the men placing 11th overall on 142 points and the women, 12th on 121.

So, the athletes who did us proud were Matt Behan (1st in the 110mH  with a time of 14.65), Sam Cooke (5th in the 400mH with 68.57), Matt, Charlie Bastow, Luke Timlin and Sean Owens in the 4x100m relay (2nd in their heat and 3rd overall), Barry McCarthy (8th in the 1500m with 4:12.10), Luke (3rd in his heat of the 400m with 57.29, and 13th overall), Gary Park (10th in his familiar participation in the steeplechase, with an excellent hurdling approach for a sub 12 minutes finish), Charlie (2nd in his heat of the 200m in 23.63 and 8th overall), Colm Parnell (5th in his heat of the 800m in 2:04.31 and 12th overall), Joe McDermott (12th in the 5,000m in 17:11.03), Sean (3rd in his heat of the 100m and 10th overall), Jonathan Bell (10th with his best throw in the hammer of 19.56m and 6th in the shot put with a throw of 11.02m), Sean Tubridy (11th in the long jump with a leap of 5.24m and 11th in the javelin with a throw of 27.56m), Conor Napper (joint 6th in the high jump, reaching 1.65m), James Quinn (9th in the discus with a throw of 28.35m), William Doherty (11th in the triple jump, leaping 10.24m) and veteran John O’Connor who came out of athletic retirement to place 10th in the 56lb weight for distance, taking 10th place with a throw of 4.39.

The women’s team effort was also to be praised and we were well represented by Sinead Moloney (who placed 13th in the high jump with a height of 1.35m, 4th in her heat of the 200m (27.53) and 12th overall, and 2nd in the 28lb weight for distance throwing it 5.84m), Katie Rose Barry (3rd in her heat of the 100mH in 16.87 and 6th overall, as well as the javelin where she placed 16th with a throw of 13.35m), Eva Lynch, Eleanor Selby, Emily Lyne and Nadine Deehan (3rd in their heat of the 4x100m and 10th overall), Laura Garcia Gonzalez (11th in the 1500m in 5:24.41 and 6th in her heat of the 400m just after the 1500m (72.37) and 14th overall), Emily Sheils (a strong PB showing in the 3000m where she placed 3rd in 10:24.03), Annie Hughes (2nd in her heat of the 800m and 9th overall in a time of 2:30.67), Tess O’Loughlin (5th in her heat of the 100m in 13.58 and 14th overall),  Sinead, Tess, Maeve Lochrie and Emily (4th in their heat of the 4x400m relay and 7th overall), Nadine (14th in the shot put with a put of 6.55m), Karen Conway (8th in the hammer (29.4m) and 9th in the discus (21.78m)). Well done to all on what was a really enjoyable afternoon of athletics in the national stadium.

A super footnote to the action was the participation in the 3rd heat of the 4x400m relay of the National U23 4x400m relay team seeking to achieve the qualifying time for the European U23 athletics championships in July. Hugo Magee was a member of the team that did produce a qualifying 3:10.29 in the event, running the third leg.

Earlier in the week, on Wednesday, Dublin Athletics had hosted its 5th graded meet at the same stadium. In warm conditions, the meet contained several events, including a 200m junior championship where we picked up the gold medal.

In the women’s grade C 200m, Sinead placed 5th in 27.62, whilst in the grade D edition, Katie Rose placed 2nd in her heat in a time of 27.19. In the men’s 200m A race, Sean and Charlie Bastow, placing respectively 4th and 8th in the race, but 1st for Sean as a junior, in respectively 22.61 and 23.31. Mark Inuwa took on the B grade race of the same distance, placing 6th in 23.81. Leo Gormley ran in the C grade where he placed 4th in 24.25.

The other distances on offer were the 800m and 5000m. In the women’s grade C 800m, Amy McGuinness placed 2nd in 2:31.42, whilst in the men’s A grade, Kevin Woods took 6th spot in 1:53.49. Enda Clarke and Henry Griffin ran together in the C grade 800m, with Enda finishing in 4th in 2:05.05 ahead of Henry in 5th place in a time of 2:07.22. Gary Park and Paul E. Kelly ran in the 800m grade D series, with Gary placing 10th in 2:20.79, whilst Paul’s time seems not to have been recorded accurately. Members may be interested to know that Mary Horgan paced a fast-paced women’s 800m A race, getting to 600m. A decent blowout for her. We had just one runner in the men's 5000m C grade event. Paul Cowhie placed 6th in 17:29.65.

There were also field events on Wednesday evening and we had competitors in the discus. James Quinn placed 2nd with his first throw of 33.07m, whilst his brother Conor placed 4th with a throw of 30.18m in the 5th round.

Road-racing took a back seat this week with only one local race and the Waterford Half with Crusader participation. The local race was the Clonee 10k organised by Dunboyne AC on Thursday evening. The day may well have been the warmest of the year up to that point and there was quite a bit of humidity. Conducted on country roads, which remained open to traffic, starting and finishing just outside Clonee in Co. Meath. The course is essentially an out-and back with a short anti-clockwise loop at the far end. It is generally flat, but there are a few minor drags, and, also, being in the country side, we did have a few flying insects in our faces at times.

The most important thing, however, was that our runners performed extremely well on the night with several PBs and podium places, both individuals and teams.

Just before heading off for a couple of months undertaking some professional training in San Francisco, Andrea Rondina enjoyed a super run, breaking away from the pack to track down two lead runners and ultimately placing 2nd in a field of nearly 350 runners and in a PB time of 32:27. Altogether, we had 14 Crusaders in the race and Andrea was followed home by others from the club with PBs. Kevin Fitzgibbon ran a PB of 34:35 for 9th place and he was followed by Eddie Nugent (34th in a PB time of 37:34) who was just ahead of Emily Sheils (39th and 5th female finisher in a PB time of 38:01). Aoife Quigley and Kathryn Gibbons were next across the line, Aoife running 40:04 for 61st and 9th, with Kathryn just 20 seconds behind in 40:24 for 66th and 11th places. James Cottle was further back having gradually lost touch with the other runners over the course of the race, finding the second half quite tough, particularly the seemingly incessant last kilometre with its slight uphill finish on a blind bend.

With 3 to score for the women, Emily, Aoife and Kathryn placed 2nd out of 7 clubs in the team competition, whilst it needed 4 for the men and the team of Andrea, Kevin, Eddie and James took 3rd place out of 8 teams. James also won the M65 age category.

 On Sunday Rob Glascott took part in the Waterford Viking Half marathon, one of the 3 races on offer making a return since the pandemic (full, half and quarter marathons). The race was conducted largely as an out-and-back along the Waterford Greenway with a couple of loops along the south bank of the river Suir. The east-west course is mildly undulating with a major climb at the half way point. Rob placed 134th in the field of 876 in a time of 1:43:21.

There was one race in the mountains organised by IMRA last week in which we had finishers. The race in the Leinster League on Wednesday evening took place on a clockwise loop of Brockagh Mountain in Co. Wicklow. The course involved a climb of 443m and a distance of 11k. In a field of 162 finishers, Jason Kehoe placed 7th in 54:22 and he was followed by Ollie McGrath (42nd in 63:39), Ian Clifford (90th in 63:48) and Gavan Doherty (110th in 78:02).

We had a significant turnout for the Poolbeg parkrun on Saturday morning, the event itself enjoying a larger field than usual of 217. No fewer than 17 Crusaders took part. They were led home by Ross Neill in 3rd place in 17:54 and Ross was followed by Michael Wycherley getting back into his groove (5th in 18:32), Daniel Sheridan (13th in 20:06), Kenan Furlong, who combined the parkrun with a long steady run (23rd in 21:05), John Lohan (25th in 21:09), Cría Dowling (40th and 6th in 22:27), Dale Whelehan (44th in 22:54), Julian Callan (60th in 24:02), Paul Campbell and Stephen Mulligan who were unusually given the same time (80th and 81st in 25:05), Cliodhna O’Reilly (92nd and 18th in 25:43), Anna Shine (135th and 32nd in 29:04), Mary Dolan (143rd and 36th in 29:28), Máirín Shine (144th and 37th in 29:33), Paul E. Kelly (173rd in 32:13), Louise Snowe (195th and 68th in 36:54) and Fiona Bane, tailwalking.

There were three first finishers from the club this week. In Brickfields with its field of 75, Nina Holmes placed 9th and 1st female runner across the line in 21:22, whilst, in Father Collins Park, Ruben Vega led the entire field of 79 home in 18:52.  Tara Murphy returned to her native USA where once again she ran in the Delaware and Raritan parkrun with its field of 55. Tara placed 13th and 1st in 26:00. Isabelle Cairns placed 5th and 2nd in New Ross alongside 77 other participants, whilst Paul McNamara took 3rd spot in Cabinteely. In an event involving 166 runners, Paul ran 20:32. Darina Scully placed 26th and 7th in a time of 26:02 in River Valley Park, alongside 85 other runners, whilst Mark Browne placed 8th in Erris where, in a field of 34, he ran 23:54. Brendan Glynn took 6th spot in 24:24 in a field of 27 in Portumna, whilst Thomas Vogée took time off from his holiday in East Anglia to run the Felixstowe Parkrun, where, in a field of 309, Thomas placed 10th in 18:11.

Colm Foley ran once again in Griffeen Park where, in a field of 152, he placed 28th in a time of 23:24, whilst Cynthia Perucca took on Shanganagh alongside 217 other participants. Cynthia ran 35:22 for 197th and 71st places. Andy Deuser placed 11th in 22:14 in the 169-strong field in Fairview, whilst Mairead Cashman (and possibly Kate Murray) ran in Bushy Park where, in a field of 214, she ran 30:10, placing 137th and 32nd. We had two runners in Mullingar. Franky Keane took 19th spot in 24:39, followed by Lisa Shine (68th and 26th in 44:36). There were 75 runners in the event. Eoghan Corrigan placed 17th in 22:27 in the 110-strong field in Royal Canal, Kilcock, whilst Maureen McGinley joined 149 other runners in Dodder Valley Park, where she placed 68th and 22nd in a time of 28:15. Diarmuid Byrne and his partner Maria Pertl ran in Poppintree, with Diarmuid placing 45th in 25:46 and Maria, 95th and 26th in 32:23. The field there measured 140, whilst, in St. Anne’s with its field of 387, Cian Coughlan ran 21:50 for 39th spot. Cian was followed by Áine Crotty (47th and 6th in 22:15), Tim Hyland (88th in 23:43) and Paul F. Kelly (117th in 25:14).
​
Clonee 10k (349)
Overall place Name Cat. Place Chiptime
1 Paul Stephenson 1 00:32:08
25 Grace Richardson 1 00:36:51
Crusaders AC runners
2 Andrea Rondina 00:32:27 (PB)
9 Kevin Fitzgibbon 00:34:35 (PB)
34 Eddie Nugent 00:37:34 (PB)
39 Emily Sheils 00:38:01 (PB) (5)
61 Aoife Quigley 00:40:04 (9)
66 Kathryn Gibbons 00:40:24 (11)
77 James Cottle 00:41:45
90 Neil Brown 00:43:20 (PB)
117 Robbie Moore 00:45:56
127 Anthony Hackett 00:46:30
144 Kate Murray 00:47:51 (32)
145 David O’Donnell 00:47:54
229 Kelly Brown 00:53:33 (65)
294 Paul E. Kelly 00:59:46
Full results here: https://www.myrunresults.com/events/clonee_10k_2023/4737/club-team-results?runnerClass=10k&type=Team&category=M
Waterford Viking Half Marathon (876)
Overall place Name Cat. Place Chiptime
1 Sergiu Ciobanu 1 01:08:42
10 Sally Forristal 1 01:22:46
Crusaders AC runner
134 Rob Glascott 01:43:21
Full results here: https://my.raceresult.com/224011/results?fbclid=IwAR3CwyHMj7kBy6Q6gdPe2TDkDtupGMMtT-LaYtS4DAGI1Za2be00f2y6Cik
IMRA Brockagh 11k (154)
Overall place Name Cat. Place Guntime
1 Karol Cronin 1 00:49:29
15 Jan Corcoran 1 00:56:57
Crusaders AC runners
7 Jason Kehoe 00:54:22
42 Ollie McGrath 01:03:39
90 Ian Clifford 01:13:48
110 Gavan Doherty 01:18:02
Full results here: https://www.imra.ie/events/results/id/2311/
Father Collins Parkrun (79)
Overall place Name Cat. Place Guntime
1 Ruben Vega 1 00:18:52
5 Mary Harte 1 00:21:36
Crusaders AC runner
1 Ruben Vega 00:18:52
New Ross Parkrun (78)
Overall place Name Cat. Place Guntime
1 Philip Simpson 1 00:18:34
3 Ruth Wilson 1 00:20:24
Crusaders AC runner
5 Isabelle Cairns 00:21:45 (2)
Dodder Valley Parkrun (150)
Overall place Name Cat. Place Guntime
1 Matthew Meagan 1 00:18:42
8 Niamh O’Flynn 1 00:22:14
Crusaders AC runner
68 Maureen McGinley 00:28:15 (22)
Shanganagh Parkrun (218)
Overall place Name Cat. Place Guntime
1 Drew Donohoe 1 00:18:14
19 Orsolya Csikesz 1 00:22:17
Crusaders AC runner
197 Cynthia Perucca 00:35:22 (71)
Erris Parkrun (34)
Overall place Name Cat. Place Guntime
1 Leonard Shevlin 1 00:21:50
10 Robyn O’Connor 1 00:24:27
Crusaders AC runner
8 Mark Browne 00:23:54
Griffeen Parkrun (152)
Overall place Name Cat. Place Guntime
1 Steve McDonald 1 00:19:27
15 Shuang Shuang Wang 1 00:21:34
Crusaders AC runner
28 Colm Foley 00:23:24
Bushy Parkrun (214)
Overall place Name Cat. Place Guntime
1 Ciarán Fleming 1 00:18:48
7 Clara Kinsella 1 00:19:30
Crusaders AC runner
137 Mairead Cashman 00:30:10 (32)
Poolbeg Parkrun (217)
Overall place Name Cat. Place Guntime
1 Oran O’Flaherty 1 00:17:32
17 Mary Senior 1 00:20:29
Crusaders AC runners
3 Ross Neill 00:17:54
5 Michael Wycherley 00:18:32
13 Daniel Sheridan 00:20:06
23 Kenan Furlong 00:21:05
25 John Lohan 00:21:09
40 Cria Dowling 00:22:27 (6)
44 Dale Whelehan 00:22:54
60 Julian Callan 00:24:02
80 Paul Campbell 00:25:05
81 Stephen Mulligan 00:25:05
92 Cliodhna O’Reilly 00:25:43 (18)
135 Anna Shine 00:29:04 (32)
143 Mary Dolan 00:29:28 (36)
144 Máirín Shine 00:29:33 (37)
173 Paul E. Kelly 00:32:13
195 Louise Snowe 00:36:54 (68)
217 Fiona Bane 00:57:44
Cabinteely Parkrun (166)
Overall place Name Cat. Place Guntime
1 Niall Larkin 1 00:19:50
8 Maria Dolan 1 00:21:28
Crusaders AC runner
3 Paul McNamara 00:20:32
Portumna Parkrun (27)
Overall place Name Cat. Place Guntime
1 Thomas Owens 1 00:20:47
8 Mary Conwell 1 00:24;53
Crusaders AC runner
6 Brendan Glynn 00:24:24
Fairview Parkrun (169)
Overall place Name Cat. Place Guntime
1 Peter Bissett 1 00:19:19
22 Holly Taylor 1 00:23:51
Crusaders AC runner
11 Andy Deuser 00:22:14
Brickfields Parkrun (75)
Overall place Name Cat. Place Guntime
1 John Golden 1 00:18:54
9 Nina Holmes 1 00:21:22
Crusaders AC runner
9 Nina Holmes 00:21:22 (1)
Mullingar Parkrun (75)
Overall place Name Cat. Place Guntime
1 Griffin Kearney 1 00:17:30
8 Orlaith Flanagan 1 00:20:25
Crusaders AC runners
19 Franky Keane 00:24:39
68 Lisa Shine 00:44:36 (26)
St. Anne’s Parkrun (387)
Overall place Name Cat. Place Guntime
1 Kenneth Nolan 1 00:17:18
9 Fiona Roche 1 00:19:20
Crusaders AC runners
39 Cian Coughlan 00:21:50
47 Áine Crotty 00:22:15 (6)
88 Tim Hyland 00:23:43
117 Paul F. Kelly 00:25:14
River Valley Parkrun (86)
Overall place Name Cat. Place Guntime
1 David Butler 1 00:18:30
4 Cecile Ollagnier 1 00:21:31
Crusaders AC runner
26 Darina Scully 00:26:02 (7)
Poppintree Parkrun (140)
Overall place Name Cat. Place Guntime
1 Lee Duddy 1 00:18:35
28 Peigi Allen 1 00:23:40
Crusaders AC runners
45 Diarmuid Byrne 00:25:46
95 Maria Pertl 00:32:23 (26)
Royal Canal, Kilcock Parkrun (110)
Overall place Name Cat. Place Guntime
1 Sean Mulryan 1 00:17:09
7 Louise Reilly 1 00:19:44
Crusaders AC runner
17 Eoghan Corrigan 00:22:27

Annie Hughes

Katie Rose Barry

Sean Owens

Luke Timlin

Charlie Bastow

Nadine Deehan

Sam Cooke

Luke Timlin

Sinead Moloney

Barry McCarthy

Colm Parnell

Emily Sheils

Gary Park

Hugo Magee (far left)

Joe McDermott

Katie Rose Barry

Laura Garcia Gonzalez

Maeve Lochrie

Sam Cooke

Matt Behan and Charlie Bastow

Karen Conway

Tess O'Loughlin

Amy McGuinness

Kevin Woods (261)

Leo Gormley

Mary Horgan (268)

Paul Cowhie

Sean Owens

Sinead Moloney

Sean Owens

Back row (L-R): David O'Donnell, Andrea Rondina, Kate Murray, Kathryn Gibbons, Aoife Quigley, Eddie Nugent, Kevin Fitzgibbon, Neil Brown. Front row (L-R): Robbie Moore, Kelly Brown, James Cottle, Tony Hackett

Emily Sheils

James Cottle

Kevin Fitzgibbon

Kelly Brown

Kate Murray (8244)

Neil Brown

Paul E. Kelly

David O'Donnell

Kate Murray and David O'Donnell

Tony Hackett

Robbie Moore

Neil Brown

Emily Sheils

Eddie Nugent

Andrea Rondina

Paul E. Kelly

Kelly Brown

Tony Hackett

David O'Donnell

James Cottle

Kathryn Gibbons

Aoife Quigley

Eddie Nugent

Kevin Fitzgibbon

Andrea Rondina

Aoife Quigley and Kathryn Gibbons

Back row (L-R): Eddie Nugent, Tony Hackett, Neil Brown, Paul E.Kelly, Kelly Brown, Andrea Rondina, Aoife Quigley. Front row: Emily Sheils, Robbie Moore, Kate Murray and Kathryn Gibbons

Rob Glascott (on left)

Gavan Doherty

Jason Kehoe (2533)