It was a memorable and poignant day in Santry Demesne last Sunday at the Dublin XC championships, which started with success in the juvenile and junior races, including team medals in the U17 girls and U17 boys (both bronze). Individual juvneile highlights included another title for Louis O’Loughlin (stepping up an age group in u17), once again demonstrating his class on the country, as well as excellent 4th places for Fathi Aden (also stepping up in u17) and Barney Kelly in the u15 boys and a top 10 for Eliza Ni Thighearnaigh, who finished 8th in the u19 girls. Both medal-winning teams had several members stepping up an age group, which makes the achievement even more impressive. Full results below…

The successes continued at senior level; an individual bronze by Barbara Cleary was backed up by team medals in both men’s (silver) and women’s (bronze) races to make it a great day for the club.

This was a wonderful result for Donore Harriers’ women on a very emotional day in the first Dublin Seniors championships without Jim McNamara. But his girls are keeping his legacy going: a great third place for Barbara Cleary who is back on the scene with a bang, followed by super runs by Sorcha Nic Dhomhnaill, Karla Doran, Sinéad Lambe, Aislinn Nic Dhomhnaill, Aisling Swaine and Florence Curley secured team bronze and, in the final results, the women were just 7 points off silver.

The winning DSD team were presented with the Jim McNamara Perpetual cup and Pat Hooper of Raheny Shamrocks, club president Iain Morrison and Jim’s brother Mick McNamara gave a great tribute speech at the presentation in the Clonliffe Bar afterwards, where Jim’s daughter Andrea Draper presented our women with their bronze medals, his son Shane presented the Crusaders girls with silver and his son James presented the gold medals to the winning DSD girls.

While it would have been great for the women to have won this Cup, it was always going to be tough in one of the most competitive races of the cross country season. Barbara’s individual bronze was an additional sweetener to the day and it is great to see her back where she belongs after a long battle with injury. It’s 2009 since the women won a silver in the Nationals and this new look squad is the best senior team in years, with great medal potential in the future, with younger and faster women coming through.

Jim would have been very very pleased with his team: Sorcha, Karla, and Sinéad packed well and are running at a new level. Sinéad hasn’t competed in this race in 3 years and it’s great to see her running so well on the cross country after a bad injury stricken few years. And a super run from Aislinn NicDhomhnaill with her first race back after having her second baby in March days after Jim’s passing. Here’s wishing Íde Nic Dhomhnaill and Maura Kearns a speedy recovery from injury. and team captain Florence Curley did great to tough it out as she’s on the comeback trail after missing months of training with injury too.

The men’s squad was missing a few key runners through injury but, despite this, put in a brilliant performance to get a well deserved team silver medal behind Raheny Shamrock who were awarded the Padraig Keane memorial cup. First home for Donore was Eric Keogh in a fantastic 4th place, followed by John Travers in 5th, Mael Lambert (8th), Rossa Hurley (23rd), Niall Lynch (34th), Ken Nugent (36th).

All attention now turns to the National Inter Clubs Championships in Abbotstown on the 27th of this month where both senior men and women will be in the hunt for medals.

RESULTS FROM THE DUBLIN UNEVEN AGES JUVENILE CROSS-COUNTRY CHAMPIONSHIPS held at SANTRY DEMESNE on 6th NOVEMBER 2016 (provisional)
U.9 GIRLS (800m) = 19th Amber Lynch (step-up)
U.9 BOYS (800m) = 33rd David Mulcahy
U.11 GIRLS (1.5km) = 19th Honor Lynch; 34th Laura Nunan; 37th Eve Conroy; 40th Emily Windsor; 41st Aobhinn McCooey
TEAM: no team result available
U.11 BOYS (1.5km) = 10th Matei Ursachi (step-up); 33rd Joe Kinsella; 42nd James Dunne (step-up)
U.13 BOYS (2.5km) = 30th Cillian Gleason; 31st Sean Kinsella; 32nd Oliver Hopkins; 41st Michael Barry
TEAM: no team result available
U.15 BOYS (3.5km) = 4th Barney Kelly; 32nd Alan Reid
U.17 GIRLS (4.0km) = 11th Roisin Brady (step-up); 22nd Emer Rynn-Cahill; 23rd Shona Smith (step-up); 26th Elena Gaina; 27th Lauryn Dunne; 28th Kate Lynch; 29th Abby Byrne (step-up).
TEAM: 1st Dundrum South Dublin AC; 2nd Clonliffe Harriers; 3rd Donore Harriers
U.17 BOYS (5.0km) = 1st Louis O’Loughlin (step-up); 4th Fathi Aden (step-up); 22nd Liam Brophy; 25th Jack Raftery (step-up); 26th Keenan McDonnell (step-up); DNF = James Murphy (illness)
TEAM: 1st Clonliffe Harriers; 2nd Dundrum South Dublin AC; 3rd Donore Harriers
U.19 GIRLS (4.0km) = 8th Eliza Ni Thighearnaigh
JUNIOR MEN (6.0km) = 23rd Sam Gallagher; 33rd Michael Gibbs