Thurles was the venue today for the County Master Cross Country Championships, it was great to see two strong squads from the Club competing and great credit to all of them who ran so well in such demanding condition, especially those members who ran in the Dublin City marathon and made themselves available again to run for the Club, great club spirit.
In the Women’s 4k Angela McCann and Kealey Tideswell went with the early pace and soon found themselves lying 2nd and 3rd for most of the race respectively with Angela winning the Gold medal over 45 in 16:40 and Kealey the Silver medal over 35 in 16:44. Then we had Suzanne Shine also running a great race, starting off steady, she picked up the pace as the race unfolded and came through strongly to finish 7th and in the process win the Women’s over 40 Silver medal in 17:22, great to see Suzanne back running well again. Another athlete making a very welcome return to competition was Yvonne O Connor and she too ran very well when finishing 14th to win the women’s over 45 Silver medal in 18:16. Then we had Nicola Maunsell also running very well when winning the women’s over 45 Bronze medal in 18:28 with Sareen Walsh hot on her heels in 17th place in 18:33. Then we had Sarah Whelan making a welcome return to Cross Country and running well when finishing 19th in 18:55. We also had good performances from Eileen Hynes and Helen O Ceallaigh finishing 27th (21:32) and 29th (23:16) and win the Gold over 60 and Silver over 55 respectively, great performances all round. In the Inter Club competition our over 35 trio of Kealey, Suzanne and Sarah combined very well to win the Bronze medals, while our over 45 trio of Angela, Yvonne and Nicola won the Gold medals and to round off a great day our team of Sareen, Eileen and Helen won the over 45 Bronze medals. Also incorporated in this event was the Master Men over 65 4k event and here the evergreen and popular Myles McHugh won the over 75 Gold medal, a great ambassador of the Sport.
The Men’s 7K event was also very competitive and here we had Jimmy Boland running well when finishing 12th in 26:47. We also had good performances from Sean McCarthy 24th in 28:49, Pat O Connor 32nd in 29:37, Pat Coffey was 34th in 30:16 when winning the men’s over 55 Bronze medal, John Perry 38th in 31:22, James O Brien 39th in 31:48 and Bernard Feery 40th in 31:53, great to see Bernard back running again after a lengthy lay off due to injury and Ned O Brien 3rd over 60 in 34:40. In the inter Club event our over 50 team of Pat O Connor, Pat Coffey and John Perry combined very well to win the Bronze medals.