Tipperary senior athletics team win national gold medals

The National Cross-Country Championships, Juvenile and Senior, took place at the picturesque Castle Irvine Estate in County Fermanagh.

Rain greeted the athletes on their arrival at the venue 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 7.5k course for the Senior and Under 23 races for both women and men was a 1,500 metres lap, followed by three laps of 2k.

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. The county had two athletes competing and it was a pity that we could not enter a county team.

Still, both athletes ran very well, 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 in 30 mins 36 secs. Laura was also competing at under 23, where she was 16th.

The Men’s race was won very impressively by the pre-race favourite Kevin Kilrehill of Moy AC. Here the county 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 as the race unfolded, 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 fifth in 23 mins 41 secs.

It is great to see Sean back running well again. At this stage, the rest of the county team were responding well, with David Mansfield Clonmel AC 31st in 24 mins 55 secs, Daniel Ryan Ellis Nenagh Olympic 38th in 25 mins 13 secs, Luke Purcell of Nenagh Olympic 58th in 25 mins 42 secs, Sergiu Ciobanu Clonliffe Harriers 74th in 26 mins 10 secs, Kevin Moore Mullingar Harriers 76th in 26 mins 13 secs, Jamie Moloney Nenagh Olympic 79th in 26 mins 2 secs.

Cathal Kennedy Thurles Crokes was 98th in 26 mins 55 secs, Conor Flaherty Clonmel AC 105th in 27 mins 8 secs, Daragh O’Leary Thurles Crokes 111th in 27 mins 20 secs, Caolan Curran Thurles Crokes 112th in 27 mins 20 secs and William Hughes Thurles Crokes 123rd in 27 mins 51 secs.

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 in Gowran. Last year’s team consisted of Sean Tobin, Sergiu Ciobanu, William Maunsell, Kevin Moore, Emmet McNamara and Louis Rice. It is great to see that this year’s team is a mix of youth and experience athletes, which augurs well for the future.

At inter club level congratulations to the Thurles Crokes quartet of Cathal, Daragh, Caolan and William for winning the silver medals in the C section.

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Earlier in the day the Junior Men’s race took place and here we had Cian Hodgins of Nenagh Olympic running a great race when finishing ninth in 14 mins 10 secs with his clubmate Diarmuid Moloney 14th in 14 mins 22 secs, having been up in the leading group earlier in the race.

There were also good performances from other Nenagh Olympic athletes like Kevin Finn 38th in 14 mins 51 secs, Daire O’ Donnell 99th 15 mins 44 secs, Ben Walshe 109th in 15 mins 50 secs and Ruairi Walsh 202nd in 19 mins 3 secs.