Donore Harriers was well represented in the 41^st edition of the Berlin Marathon on Sunday. This race made history as Kenya’s Dennis Kimetto broke the world marathon record in a phenomenal 2.02.57 as his compatriot Emmanuel Mutai, who finished second in 2:03:13, also broke the previous mark.

Anne Curley placed an excellent 39^th overall in the women’s class. She was a little over half-a-minute behind her season best set in winning the Derry Marathon earlier in the year and was the second Irishwoman to finish the race. Anne who has a best time of 2.53 has now completed 10 marathons, all inside the 3 hours barrier. Fergal Whitty narrowly missed his previous best time set in Dublin a couple of years ago. This was a fine return to best form for Fergal. He was the second Irishman across the finish line.

Results in brief: -

Men: 108^th Fergal Whitty M35 (2.34.48); 695^th Philip Hennessy (2.54.42); 942^nd Fred Kiernan M40 (2.57.55); 1690^th George Brady M35 (3.06.12); 3198^th Derek O’Neill M45 (3.18.54); 3536^thStephen Dawson (3.20.54); 5518^th Tony Griffin M55 (3.31.25); 10070^th Charlie O’Neill M60 (3.52.26);

Women: 39^th Anne Curley F40 (2.58.35); 140^th Alma Hanevy F35 (3.15.41) PB; 202^nd Breda Mahony F35 (3.19.42) PB; 3028^th Michelle Rowley F40 (4.17.25); 4057^th Michelle Dawson (4.34.14)

In a keenly contested New Ireland Rathfarnham 5km road race on Sunday  John Travers (14.28) had to settle for 4^th place as David McCarthy (14.13) of West Waterford AC ran out the winner ahead of Martin Fagan (14.21) of Mullingar Harriers. Travers and Fagan took the early pace in the race, but paid the price in the latter stages as they got reeled in by McCarthy. John also had to succumb to a strong finish from 3^rd placed Conor Rooney (14.21) of Raheny Shamrocks.

Results in brief: -

4^th John Travers (14.28); 47^th Oisin Fitzgibbon (16.25) 4^th in junior category; 56^th Henry English (16.41); 71^st Sam Gallagher (17.10) 5^th in junior category; 108^th Gerard McDonald M45 (18.04); 110^th Bernard Byrne (18.08); 121^st Niall J. O’Reilly (18.25); 159^th Grace Kennedy (19.12); 161^stBarbara Murray F40 (19.13); 186^th Sinead Graham (19.45); 214^th Karen Behan (20.20); 230^thFrank McNally M50 (20.41); 327^th Karen Crowley (22.29); 420^th Geraldine Lynch (24.11); 471^stEilish Joyce (24.38); 665^th Tony Jenkins M60 (27.49); 743^rd Michael Brophy M60 (28.56)

Team Results:

Men’s team – 1^st St. Abbans AC 66; 6^th Donore Harriers (Travers, Fitzgibbon, English, Gallagher) 170

Women’s Team – 1^st Dunboyne AC 80; 3^rd Donore Harriers (Kennedy, Murray, Graham, Behan) 123.

Emmet O’Briain placed second in the Liz McDonell Memorial 5km Cross Country race at Celbridge. This race, which is run on an undulating course on the grounds of the Castletown House estate, was won by Kevin Kelly (16.11) of St. Coca’s AC.

Results in brief: -

2^nd Emmet O’Briain (16.32); 8^th Bob Blake 17.40 (1^st in o/40 category); 10^th Stephen Gavin JNR (18.01), 17th Tom Fagan M45 (18.46); 60^th Terry Mee M70 (22.52); 69^th Mary Murphy (23.09) & 128^th Pauline Fagan (26.10).
Men’s Team Result: 1^st Donore Harriers (O’Briain; Blake; Gavin; Fagan).

The Slater Cup (club novice handicap) 6km race took place over 4 laps of the Magazine Fort lap last Tuesday evening. Newcomers Rory O’Connor and Colm O’Connell had a fine duel over a testing hilly course with Rory narrowly edging the ‘real time’ race. Victory in the ‘sealed handicap’ race went to the much improved Tom Fagan with Henry English placing second. Race organizer Iain Morrison said: “Tom had a fabulous run and was a deserving winner...”

Result in brief: -

1st Tom Fagan (24.32) allowed 4 minutes = 20.32; 2nd Henry English (22.28) allowed 1m.30s = 20.58; 3rd Rory O’Connor (21.14) scratch = 21.14; 4th Colm O’Connell (21.20) scratch = 21.14; 5th Bernard Byrne (23.52) allowed 2m.30s = 21.22; 6th Gerard McDonald (23.40) allowed 2m.15s = 21.25; 7th Niall O’Brien (25.24) allowed 3m.15s = 22.09; 8th Ian Redican (25.10) allowed 3 minutes = 22.10; 9th Eoin Hannon (24.36) allowed 2 minutes = 22.36; 10th Giovanni Borza (25.41) allowdd 2m.50s = 22.51; 11th Eoin George (27.40) scratch = 27.40.

Sam Allen placed second in both the 3.000m and One Mile races at the Bandon AC 50^thAnniversary Meeting (27/9/14). Thomas McCarthy of Bandon AC won both these races, but the 3km race was down to a ‘photo finish’. McCarthy placed 3^rd in the European club’s competition in Portugal on the previous weekend. This would indicate that Sam is making steady progress back to form after an injury lay-off. No times available.

Other results: -

Tymon Parkrun 5km (27/9/14) – 6^th Samantha Conroy F35 (21.18) first in women’s class

Marlay Parkrun 5km (27/9/14) – 3^rd Paul Cummins (17.49)

Moone Kilomarthon 26.2km (27/9/14) – 14^th Garvan Smith M40 (1.43.23); 15^th Sean Fox (1.43.23); 49^th Liam Hickey (2.01.27)

Footnote: -

First Irishwoman home in the Berlin Marathon was Mairead O’Rourke (2.58.16) of Mornington Chasers. You may have heard of them?

Juvenile Report:

Those in attendance at the Dublin Juvenile Cross-country League at Tymon Park on Sunday (28/9/14) may have witnessed for the first time a real future star in Irish athletics.  Fathi Aden made a conservative start to the Boys u/14s race, but at the halfway point of the 1.5km course swept past most of the leading group on an uphill section and with 400m remaining took over the lead and began opening a sizeable gap before winning with 25 to 30 metres to spare. Born in Somalia and a student at Synge Street School Fathi is obviously a very naturally talented athlete. This was certainly an impressive debut in the colours of Donore Harriers and as they say – watch this space!

The Girls u/16s race was again a race that held a lot of interest for the club with Lucy McCann impressing once again with a very fine 2^nd place finish. But another relative newcomer Suzanne Masterson also shows huge potential as she ran strongly throughout, particularly on the climbs, placing an excellent 3^rd. Eliza Ni Thighearnaigh ran her best race for some time and came home in 6^th.

Other notable performances came from Michael Gibbs who placed 3^rd in the Boys u/17s race – and by Grace Raftery and debutante Conor Mahony who both placed 6^th respectively in the Girls u/10s and Boys u/10s.

Full club results (non official)

Boys u/9s (500m) 10^th Joe Kinsella

Girls u/10s (700m) 6^th Grace Raftery

Boys u/10s (700m) 6^th Conor Mahony (debut); 24^th Oliver Hopkins

Boys u/11s (900m) 16^th Sean Kinsella (picked up an injury during race); 17^th Michael Barry

Girls u/13s (1300m) 23^rd Marie Cormican (debut); 32^nd Ellie Raftery

Boys u/13s (1300m) 20^th Alan Reid

Girls u/14s (1500m) 25^th Roisin Brady

Boys u/14s (1500m) 1^st Fathi Aden; 13^th Jack Connolly; 25^th James McDonagh (debut); 26^thChris Moloney

Girls u/16s (2500m) 2^nd Lucy McCann; 3^rd Suzanne Masterson; 6^th Eliza Ni Thighearnaigh

Boys u/16s (2500m) 11^th Gabhan O’Thighearnaigh (lost shoe during race)

Boys u/17s (3500m) 3^rd Michael Gibbs

Other juvenile results: -

Waterstown Parkrun 5km (27/9/14) – 17^th Shona Smyth u/15s (26.26) 4^th female overall