The Dublin Senior Cross Country Championships 2017 were held on Sunday 5th November 2017 at Santry Demesne. Mark Ryan was first home for the club in 13th 31:42, David Scanlon was 18th in 32:15, Paul Stephenson 19th in 32:25, Paul Flemming 44th in 34:47, Brian Furey 50th in 35:18, Jonathan Hughes 51st in 35:19 and Neil Skelton 55th in 36:13. The team finished 5th overall. Well done to everyone who ran.
The storms settled to a breeze and the sun warmed things up on the morning of Sunday 29th October for the 2017 Dublin City Marathon. A row of competitors from the Gardaí lined up across the start line to honour the sudden and sad passing only two days before of our very popular Rathfarnham WSAF AC club mate Adrian Tucker.
With an entry of 20,000, it was the biggest Dublin City marathon since the event started in 1980. Embedded in the race were the many club athletes competing in the National Marathon Championships, the Leinster Marathon Championships and the Dublin Athletics Marathon Championships.
Given the fact that the club so frequently is on the National Marathon podium at senior level it was highly unusual that we didn’t have any senior competitors. This was down to a combination of rest after international appearances, injuries and life catching up with people. Bobby Murphy was the clubs top performer on the day. He finished an excellent 22nd overall and won the National individual M35 bronze medal, individual silver in the Leinster Championships and individual silver in the Dublin Championships. The M35 Team of Bobby, Jason Reid and Ciaran Aylward won the silver medal in each of the National, Leinster and Dublin Marathon Championships.
Colm Murray won the individual Bronze M50 in the Leinster Championships and Silver M50 in the Dublin Championships. Tom Cuddy won the M55 silver medal in the Leinster Championships, M55 gold in the Dublin Championships and only narrowly missed out on the individual bronze in the national championships in a photo finish.
The M50 team of Colm Murray, Tom Cuddy and Denis Daly won the Leinster Championships Gold, Dublin Championships Gold and placed second on paper in the National Championships, but unfortunately due to a team registration omission will not receive the silver.
Jackie Kingston had a fantastic run to pick up the W50 bronze medal in the Dublin Championships. She is obviously following the great strength and conditioning advice she gives us all on Thursday nights!
Well done to Rathfarnham WSAF AC’s team of marshals who played an excellent role under the guidance of John McCabe and all the competitors were hugely appreciative of all those who came out to support.
Congratulations to everyone who competed. Individual results were as follows with some great PB’s: Robert Murphy 2:30:04, Jason Reid 2:43:47, Ciaran Aylward 2:52:45, Greg Byrne 2:53:51, Colm Murray 2:54:55, Gael Hernandez 2:58:01, Peter Toomey 2:58:21, Tom Cuddy 2:59:11, Denis Daly 3:01:21, Patrick Fitzpatrick 3:08:53 , Micheal Murphy 3:09:39, Barry Mulvihill 3:23:56, Eric Cullen 3:31:13 , Seamus Gorman 3:39:35, Jackie Kingston 3:45:44, Jenny O Malley 3:47:50, Una O'Brien 3:47:51, Lian Brady 3:53:40, Maria Brennan 3:53:55, John Tarrant 3:56:36, Daragh Kelly 4:32:32, Aisling Tohill 4:41:55, Tomas O Connell 4:47:44
It was with sadness that we learned of the death of our fellow club member Adrian Tucker who passed away suddenly on Friday afternoon. Adrian had long been a member of Rathfarnham W.S.A.F. He was a very successful cross-country, road and marathon runner but his strength and passion lay in mountain running and ultra-trail running.
Adrian was also a well-respected member of IMRA and had worked hard on the committee over the past year. He had established two new races on the IMRA calendar and was working ardently to progress the world of ultra-running in Ireland. He was one of the few to have successfully completed the Wicklow Round; a race which involves navigating the summits of 26 peaks in the Dublin and Wicklow mountains in less than 24hours. He also competed internationally with another great result in 2013 in the Tor de Géants; a 330km trail race with over 24,000m of climbing which is completed in less than 150hours. Modesty belied all of these achievements.
Adrian was a great friend to many and he was always willing to share his knowledge, experience and love of the hills. He was hard-working, gentle and genuine. He will be sadly missed in our running world and fondly remembered forever.
We offer the most sincere condolences to his family and friends, most especially his wife Catherine, son James and daughter Gillian.
May he rest in peace.
Eilis Connery
The Leinster Novice Cross Country Championships was held at the Navan Adventure Centre on 28th October.
The team came 10th overall. Individual results were Colm Moran 22nd, Aaron Browne 44th,Oisín Boland 80th and Shane Grehan 88th.
Well done to all.
The Autumn Open Cross Country Championships were held at the National Sports Campus, Abbotstown on 22nd October.
The results on the day were David Scanlon 28th, Colm Moran 55th, Neil Skelton 61st in the men’s race and on her own, Donna Mahon 25th in the women’s race. Well done guys.
