Last weekend Club members put in some fantastic performances and it was brilliant to see the Club colours feature prominently in a number of races. Pride of place must go to our group of athletes who travelled to Dublin for the National Half Marathon Championships held in conjunction with the Rock and Roll Half Marathon. Here we had David Mansfield running a brilliant race. He went with the early leaders and soon a group of five athletes broke clear that included the National Marathon Champion, Gary O Hanlon of Clonliffe Harriers plus Tomas Fitzpatrick of Tallaght AC as well as David Flynn of Clonliffe Harriers and Christopher Madden of City of Lisburn. This group stayed together for the 1st 8 miles and then the course became hillier and demanding. Then at around 10 miles David Mansfield took up the pace and he was closely followed by David Flynn and Christopher Madden. They were all still together as they entered the last mile and it was only over the final 300m that the medals were decided with David Mansfield finding an extra gear to win the National Half Marathon Silver medals in 69 mins, fantastic. Indeed, only ten seconds separated the top three, some performance. This was a fantastic achievement by David and he becomes the first Club athlete to win a medal at these Championship under Athletics Ireland, fantastic. Then we had Jimmy Boland also running a brilliant race when finishing 19th in 76 mins 33 secs and with Joey Feery also producing a fantastic performance when finishing 40th in 79 mins 43 secs these three athletes combined to win the National Half Marathon Gold medals and crowned Champions, a first in the Club’s history, brilliant. We also had very good performances from Billy Moloney who ran a PB over this very demanding course when finishing 64th in 84 mins 35 secs, Conor Fleming in 86 mins 54 secs and Dick O Gorman 96 mins 38 secs.
Our women athletes also produced some fantastic performances on the National stage. Here we had Kealey Tideswell who has spent much of the summer months on the mountain trails and it paid off handsomely for her when her brilliant performance saw her win the National Half Marathon over 35 Silver medal in 91 mins 15 secs, some running. Then we had Aine Roche also running a brilliant race when finishing 5th over 35 in 94 mins 40 secs. Then we had the surprise packet, Anne Marie Halpin, competing in her first National event, run a brilliant race when finishing 7th over 40 in 99 mins 24 secs and these three women combined to win the National Half Marathon over 35 Women Silver team medals, fantastic. Anne Marie Boland running in her first Half Marathon surprised everyone when running very well to finish in 101 mins 3 secs. Then we had Nicola Maunsell finishing 5th in the women’s over 45 in a very good time of 102 mins 19 secs, Sancha Quigley also ran very well over a very demanding course when finishing in 109 mins 42 secs. These three women, Anne Marie Boland, Nicola Maunsell and Sancha Quigley combined very well to finish 5th in the Senior women’s competition. Then we had Miriam O Gorman also running a brilliant race when finishing 14th over 50 in 117 mins 54 secs with Julie Tideswell also running very well when finishing 18th over 50 in 2 hours 1 sec. Looking at the results if we had another woman over 50 they would have been in with a great chance of the Inter Club Bronze medals. A fantastic day for the Club at these National Championships, well done to everyone.