from Donore Harriers website A cold miserable day and heavy soggy underfoot conditions saw the annual Dublin Senior cross country in Santry but it turned out to be a great day for our women with our first gold team medal since 2005 and a brilliant individual bronze medal for Barbara Cleary.
The small field started conservatively enough with Barbara hanging back off the top bunch, by the second lap she was battling it out at the front with Raheny’s Elish Kelly and Fiona Roche as they dropped the rest of the field, the tough four lap course proved a test of endurance in the mud and while Barbara struggled a bit with the conditions in the latter part of the race it was a another superb performance in only her second ever cross country race. Dervila Holmes and íde Nic Dhomhnaill ran just off the top group in the early stages and Íde bravely went with the fast pace and was our second girl on the course for a good part of the race until she was passed by Dervila who ran her customary steady pace and got stronger as the race progressed to coast through the field and finish in a brilliant 7th place.
Ide hung on brilliantly to finish not far behind in 8th place. They were followed in by Sinead McCauley who ran a very solid race to finish 13th with a good strong finish holding off a fast finishing Raheny rival. Samantha Conroy was next in a brilliant 15th place and her race yesterday showed a definite return to form on a course that suited her ability on the cross country. In the men’s race we had just the one man John Travers who ran a solid 5th place in what is one of his best races of late, he was dominant up front for most of the race and his early battle with mudlark DSD’s Alan McCormack may have taken its toll and he faded a little in the last lap but still rallied to finish in a very decent 5th and showed positive signs of a return to good form.
There were great runs too at the first leg of the Meet and Train cross country league on a tough wet and mucky 2 mile course in Dunboyne. Cliodhna Carthy, who has only just returned from injury, outsprinted Sportsworld on the last 50 meters to come 3rd overall in a fantastic time of 13:28. Only 5 seconds separated the first three athletes! Karen Behan passed out a few on the final straight to finish a very strong 10th. Following them were Eileen Walsh, Alma Hanevy, Cristina Gonzalez, Michelle Ruddy, Sarah Nic Ruaric, Eilish Joyce, Linda Curtin, Deborah Duffy and Sue Lynch. Full results are still being compiled. Well done to all and thanks to the Donore contingent who cheered loud and braved the rain.
