The 39th Woodie’s DIY Road Relay Championships of Ireland took place in Raheny today in what was one of the most competitive events to date. Kilcoole AC took their first ever Road Relay title in winning the Women’s Senior Race in 21:50 minutes.
Kilcoole were in 10th place after the first leg, however following a storming second two mile leg of 10:21 by Fionnuala Britton she had moved her team to first place. Una Britton, sister of Fionnuala, ran the last leg and battled well to hold off Lorraine Mannning of Raheny Shamrocks AC, to secure victory. There was only a six second differential between the two teams. Clonliffe Harriers’s Ailish Mc Dermott brought her team home for bronze in 22:02.
Fionnuala commented that: “It was brilliant that we won today as Kilcoole is the club that I ran with underage and this was our first outing as a team”. Britton who leaves with the Athletics Ireland high performance team for warm weather training next week, will now switch her focus to achieving World and Olympic qualification.
In a field of 25 teams, the host club Raheny Shamrocks AC retained their Senior Men’s title, to make it three in a row. Raheny Shamrocks took the lead from the opening 2 mile leg with Mark Kirwan, passing to Gavin O’Sullivan in 09:20 minutes. The talented Darren McBearty ran the opening leg for Letterkenny AC and passed to his teammate in second place in 09:31, with Raheny Shamrocks B in third in 09:30. In the second leg, Clonliffe Harrier’s Conor Healy ran an excellent leg to bring his team to third place with Raheny Shamrocks and Letterkenny maintaining their first and second positions. Richie Corcoran, who is now focusing on his athletics full time, ran the third leg for Raheny Shamrocks and increased his team’s lead. In the last leg, Joe Sweeney of Dundrum South Dublin AC, ran one of the most impressive legs of the day to take his team from fifth to second place to overtake Letterkenny AC with Feidhlim Kelly bringing Raheny Shamrocks home for victory.
Speaking after the race Richie Corcoran commented that “It was good to win here at home, but every year the event is getter bigger and it is getting harder to win so that makes the victory extra special”.
The Masters women’s 40+ race was won in convincing style by Raheny Shamrocks AC in 24:06 with Rathfarhnam WSAF in second place in 25:04. Third place was secured by Tallaght AC in 25:14 after an excellent run by Sharon Tighe to overtake City of Derry. In the Masters Men 40+ Raheny Shamrocks AC took the title in 19:53, with Donore Harriers in Second in 20:08 and City of Derry in third in 20:38. Liffey Valley AC won the Men’s 50+ in 21:04, with Raheny Shamrocks AC winning the Women’s 50+ in 24:06.