It was close order from start to finish with Raheny Shamrocks edging out Donore Harriers over the final 400 metres whilst Newbridge AC were always hot on the heels of the two more fancied Dublin teams.

At the National Road relay championships at Raheny last Sunday (13.04.14) Donore Harriers ‘put all their eggs in one basket’ with all four competing teams entered in the Masters M35 category. Thus there was a sense of expectation, but relay running is very much about pace judgement; giving it your all and ultimately fine margins!

Emmet O’Briain (4.46) ran a fantastic first leg, recording the fastest mile stage in the race, to give Donore ‘A’ an early lead ahead of Crusaders and Newbridge. Over the 2 mile stage Mick Traynor of Raheny used his familiarity of the course to bring Raheny level with Donore despite another very fine race from John Dunne (10.11).  Henry English (4.54) “gave it all out there” in the final one-mile leg (the circuit is a little over one mile), but the strength and experience of Brian Leahy of the home club proved decisive in the latter few hundred metres. The final team times of: 1. Raheny 19.46; 2. Donore Harriers 19.51 and 3. Newbridge 19.54 showed that this had been an excellent contest.

Crusaders AC (20.01) came 4^th with Donore Harriers ‘B’ an excellent 5^th. The ‘B’ team was led out by Fergal Swaine (4.53) who tapped on to Niall Lynch in 6^th position. Niall (10.14) maintained the team’s outside chance of getting into the medals by closing his 2-mile leg in equal 5^th. Will Morris (4.59) kept the tempo going to consolidate 5^th place. The Donore Harriers B team finished just 12 seconds behind 3^rd placed Newbridge indicating the strength in depth of the squad.

The Donore Harriers ‘C’ team (21.24) held 14^th position at the end of each stage having been led out by newcomer Garvan Smith (5.09). Fergal Whitty (10.51) ran an even-paced 2-mile leg with Des Tremble (5.24) closing strongly on the final mile stage.

The ‘D’ team (23.15) came 18^th. Tom Fagan opened with 5.43; with Gerard McDonald recording 11.30 for the 2-mile stage; and Des Gill (6.02) closing a great squad effort from Donore Harriers.

Meanwhile at the Intervarsities Track & Field championships at Waterford IT John Travers (Athlone IT) ran out an easy winner in the 5000m with a time of 14.54.90. Killian O’Hora (Blanchardstown IT) placed 7^th in the 800m Semi-Final in a time of 2.12.20

Another two of the big marathons took place at the weekend.  In Rotterdam we had 4 competitors.  First home was Conor McCauley in 2.59.09 – he had been aiming for a faster time but struggled with hydration issues throughout on a warm day – a brave run and Conor will bounce back in his next marathon in Autumn.  A trio of the ladies were next – Marianne Dunlevy made a super marathon debut finishing in 3.37.13, Angela Eustace is becoming one of the most seasoned marathoners in the club and she got yet another PB in 3.40.26 with Kim Strickland less than 20 seconds behind in 3.40.43 – congrats to all.  Kim’s sisters Janette and Olivia kept her company by racing the 10k event doing 44.19 and 51.59 respectively.  Over in London Phil Hennessy (76^th in M40 category) put behind him the disappointment of a DNF in Dublin last October and ran an excellent 2.47 having gone through the half-way mark in 1.20.55. At the recent Connemara marathon Hugh Brosnan recorded a time of 3.04.52 to place 14^th over a very demanding course.

The ever popular BHAA Kclub 10k took place in Straffan on a course which has always produced some very fast times – Lee van Haeften was 3rd and there were PBs from Stephen Dawson and Alma Hanevy – full details below

Lee Van Haeften 3rd 32.39

Tony Barry 37.31

Stephen Dawson 38.33

Joe Murphy 39.57

Alma Hanevy 40.36

Frank McNally 43.24

Ken Cronin 44.05

Nicola Dowdall 45.12

Jill Dempsey 45.29

Terry Mee 46.12

Ann Woodlock 55.30

Round 1 of the Meet and Train series took place over 2 mile on the paths of Griffeen Park Lucan and 10 runners took part – Ashling Swaine and Lorraine O’Shea made the top 10

Ashling Swaine 5th

Lorraine O’Shea 8th

Sian O’Connor 12th

Mary Murphy 29th

Ruth Chambers 30th

Mary Kingston 38th

Dana Mackey 50th

Ann Woodlock 64th

Deborah Duffy 68th

Sue Lynch 75^th

Earlier in the week, new member Karla Doran was 1st woman at the Campus 5k around the grounds of Trinity College in a time of 20.50.

Michael McMahon had 47 seconds to spare when winning the Leinster Society Aware 10km Road Race at the Phoenix Park on Saturday last with a time of 35.05 and Florence Curley was 1st lady in the 5k in 19.34