DSD make a huge impact in National CC C’ships
By Stephen Leonard
DSD Athletic Club’s women made quite an impact on last Sunday’s National Cross Country Championships held in the Sport Ireland National Sports Campus.
The club dominated the Senior Women’s Team contest with Laura Shaughnessy, Maria McCambridge and Fiona Clinton crossing the line in ninth, 11th and 13th respectively while Sarah Mulligan emerged 21st.
The club’s own Bethanie Murray won out in the Women’s Under 23 division after she clocked 29.50 to finish 18th overall.
She beat off some strong competition from the likes of Amy O’Donoghue of Emerald and Mullingar Harriers’ Elizabeth Carr while DSD’s other Under 23 competiors Meghan Ryan and Sarah Fitzpatrick were not far behind in fourth and fifth.
The club also accounted for the winner of the Junior Women’s 4000m in Sophie Murphy’s whose time of 14:18 was enough to see off the strong challenge of Amy Rose Farrell of Blackrock and WSAF’s Carla Sweeney.
Murphy’s performance, when combined with that of Jodie McCann in fifth, Eimear Fitzpatrick in 12th and Niamh Carey in 14th, was enough to see the Dundrum club again enjoy more team success in this age group.
2016 National Marathon runner-up Sean Hehir finished up 14th in the Senior Men’s class at the weekend, with Eric Keogh of Donore Harriers just one place further back.
Rathfarnham ended up fifth in the team competition as Mitchell Byrne finished up 24th with clubmates Louis McCarthy and Paul Stephenson 33rd and 36th respectively.
Donore men settled for sixth as Keogh, Daragh Fitzgibbon (26th), John Travers (35th) and Ray Hynes (45th) all performed very well.
DSD’s Junior Men’s team of Paul O’Donnell, Mark Molloy, Ruadhan O’Grada and Roly Mossop finished runners-up to Clonliffe Harriers while the club’s Under 18 Girls packed well to top their team class with Jodie McCann second, Niamh Carey and Roseanne McCullough fourth and fifth respectively and Grace Dervan 13th.
There was a fifth place finish for the DSD Under 18 Boys team while in the Under 16 equivalent Donore Harriers’s Louis O’Loughlin took the title ahead of Monaghan’s Conor Maguire and Togher’s Christopher O’Reilly while another of the Donore contingent Fathi Aden took fourth.
Morgan Clarkson of DSD came home third in the Boys Under 14 event while clubmate Alex Flynn was ninth as the team finished up fourth.
Their clubmate Kate Ferncombe finished up fifth in the Girls Under 12 class with Tallaght’s Jack Kelly the 17th runner home in the Boys Under 12 field.
