Mossy Bracken captures his first Tipperary Senior Roads title

Templemore was the venue last Sunday for the County Senior Women’s 5k and Men’s 10k Road Championships, the blue riband events of the county road season.

Conditions were very good for the women’s race while the men had to contend with showers on the latter stages of their event.

Both races were competitive.

MOSSY WINS HIS FIRST COUNTY SENIOR TITLE

In the Men’s race the warm favourite was Mossy Bracken of Templemore AC, who was second last year and was determined to go one better and try and win his first County Senior 10k title. He made his intentions known from the start as he set a very strong pace and soon had the field in single file with only Emmet McNamara of Fethard AC, the County Intermediate champion in close attention.

The chasing pack included Louis Rice (Fethard AC), Dermot Gorman (Carrick-on-Suir AC), Matthew Ryan (Moycarkey Coolcroo AC) and Barry Hartnett of Dundrum AC.

As they came into town to go out on their final lap Mossy had moved well clear followed by Emmet, then Louis and Dermot, with Matthew Ryan in close attention. At this stage Mossy was running very well and he maintained that strong pace to come home a very worthy and convincing champion in a very good time of 31 mins 44 secs to claim his first County Senior 10k title impressively.

Emmet McNamara also ran well over the closing stage to win the silver medal in 33 mins 3 secs. Dermot Gorman, using all his experience, edged in front over the final 2k to win the bronze medal in 33 mins 43 secs.

Matthew Ryan of Moycarkey Coolcroo AC was fourth (34:08) with Louis Rice of Fethard AC fifth in (34:15) and Barry Hartnett of Dundrum AC sixth in 35:23.

The bronze medals were won by the Cathedral Town club, Thurles Crokes’ team of Liam Shanahan 9th (36:58), Michael Murphy 11th (37:23), Denis McCullagh 19th (39:09) and Peter Maher 24th (41:47). It is great to see the Crokes back on the podium at county senior level after a few years absence.

As regards the inter club title, early indications had Dundrum in the lead as their athletes were packing well. Barry, along with Eamon Morrissey 7th (36:10), Philly O Dwyer 8th (36:15) and John Ryan 10th (37:20) were crowned champions and retained the title they won in Templemore on 31 points.

Then we had Fethard AC athletes also running well with their team of Emmet, Louis, Fintan Rice 13th (38:29) and Jack Spillane 25th (42:27) winning the inter club silver medals.

This was also a historic occasion for Fethard AC as they were winning medals for the very first time at this level.
This race also had a B section, which was dominated by Dundrum AC. Their team of Gerry O’Neill 12th (38:11), Martin Keane 15th (38:41) and Ruaidhri Devitt 23rd (41:35) won the gold medals. Then their team of Jim Hally 26th (42:52), Michael Ryan 27th (43:43) and Tommy Byrnes 28th (44:06) won the silver medals.

County Chairman, Owen Fanning, thanked Templemore AC for hosting a very successful event. He also thanked all the clubs for supporting these championships.