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MEN’S GOLD FOR DUBLIN AT NOVICE CROSS-COUNTRY

With  six finishers in the top 21, Dublin won the men’s county title at the All Ireland Novice Cross-Country Championships, held in  Navan, Co Meath on Sunday (December 3).First home for Dublin  was  Dara Donoghue of Lucan Harriers who finished sixth. He was followed by Shane Spring  (Raheny Shamrock AC) 11th and Fintan Kearns(Clonliffe Harriers) 14th. Making up the winning Dublin team were Colm Parnell (Crusaders AC), Óran O’Hare  (DCH and Niall Carbery (Clonliffe Harriers). In the club competition DCH finished third, with Óran O’Hare 20th, Oisin McKinley 27th, Liam Naughton 28th and Conor Duncan 30th. Clonliffe Harriers finished fourth, Raheny Shamrock sixth, Crusaders seventh, Liffey Valley 11th, Donore Harriers 15th and Sportsworld 17th.

 A close fourth in  the women’s  was Orla Duffy of Dublin City Harriers, with DCH finishing second team behind Leevale and Clonliffe Harriers finishing third. Making up the DCH team were Cristin Scollard, Clare O’Connor and Aoife Corr. Clonliffe’s scoring quartet was Julie Larkin, Hannah Brown, Sarah Bateson and Jenny Johnston. Raheny Shamrock, led by Aoibheann McGoldrick in 17th place finished fourth; Crusaders AC was seventh and Sportsworld 12th. Best of the county teams was Cork with Dublin second.  Juno Gerolmo-Feeney  of  Donore Harriers and Clonliffe’s Julie Larkin  made up the Dublin team.

In the U19  age group, Clonliffe Harriers was the winning team. Scorers were Sean Cronin, Tom Breslin, Cillian Keegan and Lorcan Benjacar. Dublin won the boys’ county team title  and finished second in the girls’  U19 race behind Cork. 

JINGLING ALL THE WAY!

Mitchell Byrne of Rathfarnham WSAF AC and Anne Marie McGlynn of Letterkenny AC were the winners at the 32nd Jingle Bells 5km, organised by Donore Harriers and  held in Dublin’s Phoenix Park on Saturday (December 2). In cold but sunny conditions, Byrne led home over 1,200 finishers in 14 mins 13 secs. Three seconds behind was Eoin Everard of Kilkenny City Harriers, with Philip Marron of Ratoath AC third in 14:20 and David Scanlan of Rathfarnham WSAF AC fourth in 14:22. Fifth in 14:26 and first for host club Donore Harriers was defending champion John Travers. His clubmate Josh O’Sullivan Hourihan was sixth in 14:21. First junior was Soloman Holdern Betts of UCD AC in 14:55. With two in the top four, Rathfarnham WSAF AC took the men’s team prize ahead of Donore Harriers, Clonliffe Harriers and Brothers Pearse.  

McGlynn finished in 15:56, with Catherina Mullen of MSB AC fourth and first Dublin club athlete  in 16:34 and Roisin O’Reilly  of UCD AC fifth in 16:37. Metro St Brigid’s was second of the women’s teams behind Leevale with Dublin City Harriers third, and DSD AC fifth. A massive total of 102 women’s teams  had entered; with seven from both Sportsworld and Lucan Harriers, six from Brothers Pearse and Drogheda and District AC, five from Dunboyne AC, four from both Waterstown Warriors  and new club D15 RC as well as from Kilcoole AC, Crusaders, Civil Service, DSD AC and Raheny Shamrock. In the men’s race, an even larger total of 111 teams had entered - seven from Drogheda and District, six from Civil Service, Lusk AC, Kilcoole, MSB  and Crusaders  five from Brothers Pearse, Dunboyne AC , Clonliffe Harriers, Portmarnock, and  four each from Donore, DSD AC, Raheny Shamrock, Rathfarnham WSAF and Lucan Harriers.

At the Waterford Half Marathon, Sergiu Ciobanu of Clonliffe Harriers finished second and first M40 in 67:10 followed by his Clonliffe clubmates Mihail Sprincean third in 67:23 and Tudor Moldovan fourth in 67:33. Becky Woods was second woman in 77:42.Cliona Murphy of Dublin City Harriers was second woman  with a time of 34 mins 10 secs at Saturday’s Seeley Cup 10km  in Belfast. Edel Monaghan, also DCH was fourth woman in 34:57.

At the annual Newmarket Classic 5km in Co Cork on Sunday, Emmett Jennings of DSD AC was a fighting fifth in 14 mins 26 secs.

DUBS ON TOUR 

Abroad, Jodie McCann of Dublin City Harriers finished second in the women’s 3000m with a personal best time of 9 mins 00.82 secs at Saturday’s  Zatopek:10 meet  in Melbourne, which incorporated the Australian Championships.

In the USA, Darragh McElhinney  of UCD AC, representing Forte Sports Management,  clocked a time 13:35.99 for 16th in his 5000m heat at  the  Sharon Colyear-Danville Season Opener at Boston University also on Saturday. In the 3000m Scott Fagan (Metro St Brigid’s AC) ran a rime of 8:24.58.

In his debut over the distance, Hiko Tonosa of Dundrum South Dublin AC clocked a time of 2:15.51  when completing  Sunday;S the Valencia  Marathon  in Spain.

Anne Jennings of Dublin Bay Running Club completed a distance 208.732km at the  World 24 Hour Championships held in Taipei, Taiwan over the weekend (Friday December 1 - Saturday  December 2). Her best is 220.545 km. 

Captions (pics taken from the web): 

Jingle Bells - Mitchell Byrne on his way to victory. Courtesy PopUp Races

Jingle Bells-  top three women. Courtesy PopUp Races

Clonliffe men at National Novice Cross-country; the team was 4th. Courtesy Clonliffe Harriers

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