Tipperary Senior team wins National Cross Country Gold
The National Cross-Country Championships took place last Sunday at the picturesque Castle Irvine Estate in Co. Fermanagh.
Rain greeted the athletes on their arrival but by the time the first race got underway at 11.30am, the rain had cleared, and weather wise it was ideal for both athlete and spectator. The underfoot conditions were greasy in parts of what was an undulating course, hilly in parts, making it a great testing course.
The 7.5km course the Senior and Under 23 races for both women and men was a 1500m lap followed by three laps of 2k.
Women
Anne Marie McGlynn, the National Marathon champion won the senior women’s race, and she becomes the first women to win both titles in the same year.
Tipperary had two athletes competing with Ciara O’Neill of Clonmel AC running very well when finishing 23rd in 29 mins 3 secs and her clubmate Laura Cooney finishing 49th. Laura was also competing in the under 23 grade where she was 16th.
Men
The Men’s race was won very impressively by the pre-race favourite Kevin Kilrehill of Moy AC.
Tipperary’s athletes performed very well, none more so that Sean Tobin of Clonmel AC. In the initial stages of the race, Sean paced himself well in the mid-teens, then he gradually worked his way up through the field. Going out on the final lap he was in fifth place and leading the chase to catch the leading group. He maintained that strong pace to finish 5th in 23 mins 41 secs.
At this stage, the rest of the County team were responding well, with David Mansfield Clonmel AC 31st, Daniel Ryan Ellis Nenagh Olympic 38th, Luke Purcell Nenagh Olympic 58th, Sergiu Ciobanu Clonliffe Harriers 74th, Kevin Moore Mullingar Harriers 76th, Jamie Moloney Nenagh Olympic 79th, Cathal Kennedy Thurles Crokes 98th, Conor Flaherty Clonmel AC 105th, Daragh O’Leary Thurles Crokes 111th, Caolan Curran Thurles Crokes 112th, and William Hughes Thurles Crokes 123rd.
The County team of Sean, David, Daniel, Luke, Sergiu, and Kevin combined very well to win the gold medals in the ‘B’ section, improving well on last year’s silver in the same section. Last year’s team consisted of Sean Tobin, Sergiu Ciobanu, William Maunsell, Kevin Moore, Emmet McNamara, and Louis Rice. It is great to see this year’s team a mix of youth and experience athletes, augurs well for the future.
At the Inter Club level, the Thurles Crokes quartet of Cathal, Daragh, Caolan and William won the silver medals in the ‘C’ section. A link to this team was the Thurles Crokes team of 1986 when in Santry their team of Tommy Moloney, Sean Hughes, William’s father, Patrick Heffernan, and Joe Tobin won the gold medals in the B Section and were the first club in the County to do so.
Juvenile
Ellen Maher (Dundrum AC) was Tipperary’s sole competitor in the Girl’s U12 race where she put in a commendable performance to finish 36th in a large field of 186 athletes.
Tipperary had an U12 Boys team competing over the 2000m distance. They were led home by Michael Hynes of Nenagh Olympic who finished in an incredible eighth position and secured a National individual medal.
Michael was also part of the Munster team who won the Inter-Provincial competition. The Tipperary team finished in a brilliant sixth place and the team scoring members along with Michael Hynes were: Matthew Esmonde (Moyne AC 40th), Luke Kavanagh (Templemore AC 53rd), Aaron Savage (Newport AC 66th), Breandan Purcell (Thurles Crokes AC 87th) and Tadhg Quinlan (Templemore AC 89th).
Tipperary’s representatives in the Boys U14 race also has a County team being represented. First home was Albert Maher of Dundrum AC who won himself a national individual medal as he finished in 12th position. Albert was also the sixth scoring member of the Munster team who took home the gold medals in the Inter-Provincial competition. Not far behind Albert was Luke Duggan (Templemore AC) finished in an incredible 19th position and just outside of the individual medals. The other scoring members of seventh place finishing county team were: Christopher Mills (Thurles Crokes AC 67th), Harry Cahill (Thurles Crokes AC 93rd), Evan Bourke (Thurles Crokes AC 98th) and Charlie Cahill (Thurles Crokes AC 105th).
The U18 & U20 men’s races were run together where Nenagh Olympic AC had a strong contingent competing. They were led home by Cian Hodgins in ninth place in the U20 race. Diarmuid Moloney followed close behind in 14th place and fifth U18 which earned him an individual medal. Kevin Finn was the next athlete home for Nenagh finishing 38th and twelfth U18 which also earned him an individual medal. Backed up by Daire O’Donnell 99th and Ben Walshe 109th, Nenagh Olympic finished second in the U18 Club competition.
Attention now turns to the National Uneven Age Championships in a few weeks’ time.
Munster Master Cross Country Championships: take place next Sunday 24th November at Middlepiece. These Championships for both women and men over 35 are always well supported by the clubs in the County and so we should have some great races in all the varies age categories.