Donore Harriers teams make Dublin Masters podium
THERE was another good return for Donore Harriers at this year’s Dublin Masters Cross Country Champion-ships in Raheny on Sunday with their Women’s team landing bronze, their Men’s Over 50’s squad taking silver and Barry Potts securing an individual gold in the M70 class.
Without the services of the Nic Dhomhnaill sisters, the Curley sisters, Barbara Cleary and Grace Kennedy-Clarke, the Donore Harriers women’s team was not expected to feature in the medals.
Donore’s W35 team Barbara Murray, Audrey Gahan, Ariana Ball & Sinead Graham-O’Reilly
However, good team-packing brought its reward as Barbara Murray finished 10th with Audrey Gahan next home for the club in 13th, Ariana Ball 19th and Sinead Graham-O’Reilly clinching the final scoring position, just one-second and one place ahead of Caroline McCarthy.
It was enough to see the team take bronze ahead of Civil Service AC and behind winners Sportsworld AC and Raheny Shamrocks AC.
Barbara Murray (W45) and Audrey Gahan (W40) narrowly missed out on individual medals as both placed fourth in their age categories.
The Men’s race over four laps (6km) saw the Donore M50 team emerge runners-up out of 14 teams on 336 points behind Raheny Shamrocks AC on 220.
The team was led home by Peter Gaffney in 50th with Phil Hennessy just five places further back, Ciaran O’Flaherty crossing the line in 105th position and Peter Nugent following suit in 126th.
Niall Lynch was first home for the Donore M35 team in 19th place followed by Gavin Keogh in 28th, Fergal Whitty in 29th and Danny O’Sullivan in 30th which was good enough for seventh place on the team leaderboard.
In the Master Men’s 3km race for M65, Barry Potts clocked a time of 14.13 on his way to second place in that division and gold in the M70 age group.
ELSEWHERE, having finished a disappointing 12th in last month’s National Under 17 Cross-Country Championships Abdel Laadjel of Donore Harriers bounced back by winning the Junior Men’s division in the Tom Brennan New Year’s Day 5km.
While he lost a little ground on the elite athletes over the remaining two kilometres, a strong finish brought him home in an excellent eighth place overall, just seven seconds adrift of National Senior Cross-Country champion Liam Brady in sixth.
MEANWHILE, in her native Co Clare Barbara Cleary was third overall and the first woman home in a field of 202 finishers in the recent Milltown Mallbay GAA 5km Road Race.
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