Tipperary Senior men’s team win silver at national cross country championships

Gowran Demesne was the venue last Sunday for the blue riband events of the National Cross Country Championships. The heavy rain on the previous few days made the going heavy and soft and as the 14-race card progressed, the conditions deteriorated and proved very energy-sapping over the final few races. As some pundits put it, ot was real cross country terrain where strength and endurance were needed more than speed.

SENIOR MEN’S RACE

The last event on the programme was the National Senior Men’s race over the shorter distance of 9,000m and it was great to see so many clubs and counties well represented in this event. Sean Tobin (Clonmel AC), making a welcome return to cross country after a gap of four years, ran well in the conditions when finishing 19th. Then we had Segio Ciobanu (Clonliffe Harriers) running for the county finishing 40th with Willie Maunsell (Clonmel AC) finishing 42nd. Kevin Moore (Mullingar Harriers), also running for the county finished 76th and the scoring six for the county was completed by the Fethard AC duo of Emmet McNamara 116th and Louis Rice 123rd.

These six athletes combined very well to win the silver medals in the B Section of the National Championships. I have no doubt that both Emmet and Louis will be delighted with their debut performances at this level and played a great role in helping the county secure the silver medals.

It is also a first for Fethard AC to have athletes winning medals at this level under Athletics Ireland.

There were also great performances from the following athletes in such testing conditions, athletes like Barry Hartnett (Dundrum AC) 132nd, James Tanner (Nenagh Olympic) 146th, Conor Keating (Moycarkey Coolcroo AC) 172nd, Patrick Roche (Carrick- on-Suir) 187th, Tom O’Donnell (Dundrum AC) 194th, Gerry O’Neill (Dundrum AC) 208th, Michael McNamara (Clonmel AC) 210th and Jim Hally (Dundrum AC) 212th.

UNDER 20 RACES

The women’s under 20 race saw good performances from Laura Cooney (Clonmel AC) 78th and Ruby Carroll (Clonmel AC) 95th.

In the Men’s under 20 race we saw Nenagh Olympic winning the inter club bronze medals with great performances from their quartet of Diarmuid Moloney 17th, Cian Hodgins 24th, Luke Purcell 32nd and Daniel Ryan Ellis 76th.

These four athletes along with Conor Flaherty (Clonmel AC) 63rd and Daire O’Donnell (Nenagh Olympic) 86th helped the county to finish fifth. This was a brilliant achievement by Nenagh Olympic and it augurs well for the future.

In the senior women’s 9000m race the sole county athlete was Niamh Cunneen of Nenagh Olympic and she ran well when finishing 34th.