DUBLIN CLUBS ACTIVITIES ROUND UP, 18 - 19 JANUARY 2025

EIGHT LEINSTER CROSS COUNTY TITLES FOR DUBLIN

Newly-crowned Dublin masters champion Fiona Roche (Raheny Shamrock, W40) added another title to her collection when winning the women’s race at the Leinster Master Cross-Country Championships, held in Kilcormac, Co Offaly on Saturday (January 18). Roche won the race in a time of 14 mins 24 sec. Behind her, Noreen Brouder (Sportsworld, W45) finished third in 14:39 and ultra-running specialist Sorcha Loughnane (Donore Harriers W45) fourth in 14:43. With Aoife O’Leary (Sportsworld, W40) fifth, and Lorna Quinn tenth, Sportsworld were clear W35 team winners ahead of Donore Harriers. Best of the W50 teams was Raheny Shamrock’s trio of Tara Kennedy 13th, Mary Walsh 16th and Trish Fitzgerald 29th. Rathfarnham WSAF finished third, with Donna Mahon 19th, Sheelagh Jones 27th and Vanessa Sallier 37th making up the team. Sportsworld’s W50 team finished seventh. Winning the men’s race in 22 mins 50 secs was Pierce Geoghegan (Liffey Valley AC, M40). Raheny Shamrock AC finished second of the teams, led by David Kirwin in sixth place. Liffey Valley AC was fourth, Sportsworld fifth and Donore Harriers sixth. Rahney also finished second of the M50 teams, with Metro St Brigid’s third. In the M65 race, Liam Lenehan (Sportsworld AC) was the winner. 

Also taking place were Leinster Intermediate championships, and in the women’s race, Aoife Carroll (Sportsworld AC) finished second and her clubmate Elaine Kennedy fourth. With four in the top twelve, Sportsworld won the team title from Mullingar Harriers, with Liffey Valley third, Dublin City Harriers fourth and Civil Service Harriers fifth. Mark Naylor (Liffey Valley AC) finished second in the men’s race followed by Kevin O’Boyle (Donore Harriers) in fourth place. Liffey Valley finished second team. At county level, Dublin took all eight team titles on offer—in the over 35, 50 and 60/65 men and women’s masters races and in the two inter races. Some excellent pictures are on the Athletics Leinster Facebook site at https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.1155709896561806&type=3 with some Dublin runners reposted here.

BHAA ‘regulars’ Laura McDonnell and Sean Doran, both of them Dublin club athletes, were the winners at the Garda St Raphael’s BHAA Cross-Country, held on the ‘Munich hills’ course at the Phoenix Park on Sunday (January 19). First off were the women, with McDonnell pushing the pace from the start of teh two-mile race despite strong opposition from Caroline Crowley and Julie McGrath and they finished in that order. Fourth and first master was Karla Doran. Revenue took the team prize with Teachers second. In the men’s four-mile race, Doran proved the class of the field winning by over fifty seconds from Thomas Sherlock with Marc Fitzachery third and first M45. Fourth and first M40 was Niall Sherlock, older bother of Thomas. ESB was first team in division 1 and Eir the winners in division 2. Pics from the BHAA races are at https://www.flickr.com/photos/lindie/albums/72177720323290284/ 

INDOORS

At the National Indoor League round in Abbotstown, Bori Akinola (UCD AC) produced the performance of the day in the men’s 60m, which he won in a personal best time of 6.65 secs. Akinola was running in one of a series of special ‘guest’ races. In the races that counted for league points, Lorcan Murphy (DSD AC) clocked 6.83 and Marcus Lawler (Clonliffe Harriers) 6.87. Second in the guest men’s 1500m was Benjamin Caulier (Lucan Harriers) in 3:57.42. In the league competition, Clonliffe Harriers topped the table with 115 points. Dundrum South Dublin AC was second with 107 points and Ratoath AC third on 92 points. Donore Harriers finished seventh and Raheny Shamrock tenth. Winners for Clonliffe were Marcus Lawler 400m and Eoin Sheridan shot put. Picking up top points in both the 60m and long jump for DSD AC was Lorcan Murphy. Ratoath topped the women’s table with 128 points, with defending champions Dundrum South Dublin a close second on 122.5. Clonliffe Harriers were fifth, Donore Harriers 11th and Raheny Shamrock 12th. Emily Bolton picked up maximum points for Clonliffe when winning the 1500m from Iseult O’Donnell of Raheny Shamrock. After the cancellation of the opening round, overall scores for the indoor league will be based on the combined scores from Sunday’s round and a second round on February 8 in Athlone, which was the original date for the final. That will not now take place. 

THREE FIFTHS IN SHEFFIELD

At the BMC Sheffield Grand Prix, also on Sunday, Jonas Stafford (UCD AC) finished fifth in the men’s 1500m A race with a time of 3:48.73. Amy O’Donoghue (Dundrum South Dublin) was also fifth in her women’s A graded 1500m, clocking a time of 4:19.19. In the women’s A grade 3000m, Niamh Kearney (Raheny Shamrock) made it a another fifth place for the Irish when finishing in a time of 9:17.40. 

In the NIA, Abbotstown, at Track & Field Live No 4, on Wednesday (January 15), Edel Monaghan (Dublin City Harriers) won the women’s mile in 4:46.37, while Emma Moore (DCU) came home first in the women’s 800m with a personal best time of 2:05.94.

STATESIDE

In Seattle, at the Dempsey Indoor meet on an ‘oversized’ track on Saturday (January 18), Ronan McMahon-Staggs (Dublin City Harriers) ran a lifetime best of 3:51.85 for third place in the men’s mile. On the same day, Finn Boyle (Crusaders AC) was in Ithaca, New York where he ran a PB 2:27.38 for 1,000m. A week earlier, on Sunday January 12, Cormac Dixon (Tallaght AC) equalled the Irish U20 indoor record of 2:27.38 when he finished third in a 1,000m race in Brighton, Massachusetts, while in Akron Ohio, Irish shot put champion Eric Favors (Raheny Shamrock AC) opened his 2025 indoor season with a 19.30 heave.

SCHOOLS

At the DCU Schools Invitational Cross-Country in St Claire’s Glasnevin, Dublin, on Wednesday (January 15), Goda Buivytyte (St Dominic’s Cabra) was a convincing winner of the senior girls race with Sarah Doherty second. In the senior boys’ 4,000m race, Matei Ursachi (St Paul’s) made what looked like the winning move with about 1,000m to go but was beaten in the dip for the line and finished second to an athlete from Kilkenny. Third was Lorcan Benjacar (Ard Scoil Ris),with Tom Breslin (St Aidan’s CBS) fourth.