From BHAA There was a good turnout for the Dublin City Council races at St. Anne’s Park on Saturday. Conditions were very good, although a bit windy. In the women’s race, Susan Byrne (Colt Telecom) managed to deprive Mary Hanley (Dept of Transport) of another victory, winning by four seconds. Angela McCann (Boston Scientific) was third. Mary Hanley has won this race twice and has now been second twice too.
In the men’s race, it took the national half-marathon champion, Cillian O’Leary (Secondary Teachers), to deprive Paul Fleming (Irish Dairy Board) of a fourth successive win. Paul too tried valiantly to hold on but Cillian managed to extend his lead and win comfortably in the end.
The standard in the men’s over 45 category was notably high – Paul Cowhie (CMS) came home in fifth place overall, with Niall Coppinger (Zurich Insurance) and Dave Corcoran (NSRT) also in the top 20.
After the races, we were privileged to have Dublin’s first citizen, Lord Mayor Councillor Eibhlin Byrne, to present the prizes. She highlighted one of the undoubted strengths of the BHAA which is the sense of community among runners and race organisers.
There were special presentations to Mary Hanley and Paul Fleming to mark their consistent outstanding performances over the past three years. Although there was no undue delay in announcing the results, quite a few prize winners were not present to collect their prizes, particularly in the team categories. Indeed, the results were announced without having the renowned quiz. Those remaining at that stage were able to select their preferred prizes which will come in very useful to them.
So, congratulations and thanks to Jim Kelly, Gay Murray and a large group of helpers from Dublin City Council for a very good race.
There are lots of photos at two links – you will be sure to see a good shot of yourself:
https://bhaa.ie/mediagallery/album.php?aid=74&page=1
https://www.racepix365.com/RaceListing.aspx?idRace=22
Incidentally, Paul O’Connell gave some brief details of a new results database that he is working on. It will have a detailed history by individual etc – results.bhaa.ie.
In addition, some videos have been uploaded to YouTube and there is a link on the BHAA website to these at https://www.youtube.com/user/bhaaonline?gl=GB&hl=en-GB
We are very fortunate to have Richard Dunne and Paul O’Connell putting such great efforts into bringing us information and pictures.
Our next race is the Kepak 8 mile road race on Saturday 18 April 2009 at 2.30pm at Clonee.
Bye for now.
The Editor
