At the All Ireland Cross Country races in Wesport on Sunday 09 February 2025 we had some fine performances by our masters teams who brought home several all Ireland Medals. In the M65+ race Tom Cuddy was 2nd home overall and 2nd M65 category. Tom was followed by Donal Murphy 12th and 9th M65, John McHugh 13th and 9th M65 and Terry Clarke 17th and 10th M65. Tom, Donal and John won team Gold in the M65 and also scored on the Dublin Gold medal winning team. Next up was the Masters F50+ Women's race. First home was Donna Mahon 58th and 7th F50, followed by Sheelagh Jones 78th and 1st F65, Vanessa Sallier 94th and 9th F50 and Helen French 112th and 12th F50 to bring our F50+ team homein 4th position. Donna and Sheelagh scored on the Dublin silver medal winning team. In the Masters Men M35+ race Mark Ryan was 5th and 1st M45, followed by Matthew Kane 8th and 5th M40, Louis McCarthy, 16th and 8th M40 and David Power, 21st and 10th M40. These 4 lads took home the M35+ Club silver medal, while Mark, Matthew and Louis scored on the Dublin Gold medal winning team. Well done to all. The full results are on Myrunresults website at https://myrunresults.com/events/123ie_national_inter__masters_xc_championships/5624/results

Whilst the club xc season concluded prior to Christmas the school xc season has just begun with Leinster Schools South, West and East Cross Country Championships taking place in January in Phoenix Park with over 2,000 athletes taking part. The Schools Cross Country Championships allow athletes to swap their club singlets and represent their schools. The age groups include: Minor (Under 14), Junior (Under 15), Intermediate (Under 17) and Senior (Under 19). Many of Ireland’s top long-distance runners have competed in the Leinster Schools Cross Country Championship, using it as a stepping stone to national and international success. Placing in first 12 in regional race qualifies athletes for the Leinster Schools Final on 12 February with the opportunity then to qualify for National Schools Finals in Galway on 8 March. Well done to all club athletes who competed with some fine qualifying performances including Fionnan O Keeffe 1st Minor Boys, Ryan O Neill 2nd Senior Boys, Amelia Byrne 5th Junior Girls, Lucy O Neill 10th Inter Girls Sarah Murphy 11th Senior Girls and Aidan O Connor 12th Senior Boys. These athletes can next look forward to upcoming provincial final. Good runs also from, Keely Sheridan 20th, Aoife Reidy 21st Junior Girls, Ciara MacDonnacha 28th Inter Girls East, Kate Connolly 28th inter Girls West Sarah O Reilly 50th Girls Inter, Lily Lonegan 29th Junior Girls and Philipa McGlynn 26th Senior Girls and Ava McGill.

Leinster Masters Cross Country 2025

Raheny 5 mile – Sunday 26th Jan Some great Rathfarnham WSAF results from Raheny yesterday, of particular note are Sheelagh Jones and Tom Cuddy, both winning their age categories! Sheelagh winning the F65 category in 34:45 and Tom the M65 in 31:13. Great performances too from: Colm Murray 2nd in the M55 category in 30:07 Martin Kelly 3rd in M60 with 31:41 Denis Daly, 4th in M55 in 31:48 Other club results were: Laura RYAN - 00:30:54 - FS Keziah FITZPATRICK - 00:40:32 - FS John MCAULEY - 00:28:56 - M40 Iomhar MACGIOLLA PHÁDRAIG - 00:31:16 - MS Jos LALOR - 00:31:57 - M45 Derek BAIN - 00:39:55 – MS Great running from all. Full results on myrunresults: https://www.myrunresults.com/.../axa_raheny.../5529/details 

Cross country runners are a hardy bunch and the Dublin intermediate and masters cross country championships proceeded yesterday on a bitterly cold, wet and muddy St Anne’s Park. Dublin Masters xc medals are hard won and casting aside the festive season excesses it proved to be a fruitful day for the Rathfarnham athletes. Great credit again to Raheny Shamrocks who never fail to deliver big championship occasions and always greatly supported by their local athletic mad community making for wonderful exciting championship atmosphere. The traditional course had been revised taking in the Clontarf sea facing aspect and incorporating a testing course featuring 2 descendent and climbs which cut up as the afternoon wore on making for proper cross country be brave and keep on your feet conditions. In the team events Rathfarnham took home Gold Team medals in M35 (Mark Ryan, Mathew Kane, David Power and Louis McCarthy) and M65 (Tom Cuddy, Sean Doyle and Donal Murphy) and Silver Team medals in F50 (Donna Mahon, Vanessa Sallier and Sheelagh Jones. So team medals in 3 of the 6 team events! It was the intermediate women who are first into the fray with sole intermediate runner Laura Mills getting the Club rolling. Well, in fact Adam Jones, Owen and PJ were on course some hours earlier strategically setting up Club team and facilities and club athletes are appreciative of their work, thank you lads. The first of the Masters races was the combined W50 plus and M65 race over 3000m, with the weather conditions now worsening as the rain was now lashing down and the course gradually turning into pretty much a mud bath. In this combined race Donna Mahon ran a fine race to finish 2nd in F50 and take silver and Sheelagh Jones going one better winning Gold in F65. Special mention to club stalwart Jackie Kingston digging herself out of the Dublin mountain snow and finishing a fine 4th. In the M65 race Tom Cuddy had a great battle to the line with Sportsworld ultimately winning Silver medal with Sean Doyle taking Bronze medal in 3rd. Next up were the M50 and F35 races with Sean McCreery taking Silver in M55 category and Laura Ryan taking Bronze in F35. The final race on the card was the fiercely competitive men’s M35 plus race and after relentless rain and the previous 5 races the course was an absolute mud bath by this stage. Mark Ryan however made light of the conditions finishing 2nd overall against his younger rivals and taking Gold in M45 category. Great credit also to Mathew Kane finishing 4th overall taking Silver in M40. Alexey Marchenko better known for his marathon exploits ran a great race to take Silver in M35 category.  In the battle for the Masters overall Pat Hooper Cup and despite the heroic efforts over the last few weeks of Team Supremo Owen McLoughlin, hosts Raheny Shamrocks prevailed by 3 points ahead of Clonliffe and 5 points ahead of Rathfarnham. This was a well marshalled club effort with 45 club athletes defying atrocious weather conditions and giving their all. “if we can winter this out, we can summer anywhere!” So a fine start to the year for club athletes with easier days ahead. Next up is the national intermediate and masters championships taking place in Westport on 9 February. Report by Sean McCreery

Well done to all who skipped a St Stephens Day lie in for the annual Mince Pie Run. Congratulations to Maria Brennan who was victorious this year in a close run 2024 contest!

A busy day for Rathfarnham athletes in Tramore, County Waterford today at the National Juvenile Uneven age group and Novice Cross Country Championship. Fionan O'Keeffe was first out in boys U15 racing up a year ran a very commendable 38th out of 138 qualified athletes. Next up in boys U17 we had Aidan O'Connor running well up the field throughout to take 21st place. Ryan O'Neill was our final juvenile athlete out and was running his final club XC race as a juvenile as he moves to junior category in January. Fittingly he delivered his best performance to date taking 4th place to earn a precious individual national medal. This was Ryan’s first national cross country medal and demonstrates his ongoing improvement. Ryan also lead home the Dublin team to take County and Provincial gold medals. The XC participation of all club juvenile athletes the past few months will provide them with an invaluable strength and endurance base for the forthcoming indoor and out door track season. In the women’s novice race the Rathfarnham team finished 14th overall lead by Aisling O Connor with a fine 18th place finish and backed up by Grainne Black, Laura Mills and Louise Cassidy. John Macaulay was the sole men’s runner. Well done all participants today. In other news in the BHAA 6k XC race in Tallaght Jared Murray continued his competitive return taking a comfortable win whilst Laura McDonnell took the win in the ladies race. Terrific results. 

We had a terrific Rathfarnham WSAF representation for the Valencia Marathon yesterday with 6 athletes travelling to sunny Spain. Colm Murray was our first finisher in 2:59:13, and of particular note, Martin Kelly clocked a new PB of 3:09:23 after breaking his foot before last year’s Valencia! Colm Murray - 2:59:13 – M55 -(his 21st sub 3!) Luke Howard - 3:08:13 – M35 Martin Kelly - 3:09:23 – M60 - (4 min PB ) Seán McCarron - 3:32:12 – M40 Catherine Kelly - 4:34:48 – F60 Keren Ziv - 4:38:34 – F45 Closer to home in rainy Waterford, David Power was 5th overall in his home Half Marathon race in a blistering 73min! Great running folks

Rathfarnham WSAF is delighted to announce our new Club President, Mr John McHugh.  Voted in as President at the AGM on Nov 26th for the next 3 years, John been running with the club for over 30 years winning many Dublin, Leinster and National medals. John is a wonderful juvenile coach and is very dedicated to helping our younger members improve and reach their athletic potential. Hugely popular with parents, coaches and the juveniles he coaches, he also has a bike, but we’ll say no more about that! John takes over the role from Jackie Kingston, our President for the last 3 years, who was unwaveringly dedicated to the role and always had the best interests of the Club and it’s members forefront in everything she did. A huge thank you to Jackie who continues in her role as Juvenile Coach.

Rathfarnham Athletics volunteers were out early this morning as the club hosted the final round 3 of the Dublin Athletics Juveniles XC series on the hallowed Tymon Park. Adam Jones as always designed an imaginative series of laps to cater for ages U9s through to U19s. Stormy conditions prevailed but all in all a wonderful November morning in west Dublin and congratulations to Adam and his merry band for facilitating a great days XC racing. The league events are a wonderful opportunity for aspiring young athletes to find their way on their athletics journey. Rathfarnham coaches had a record of over 40 juveniles running today (including a happy bunch of U10 girl’s and coaches John McHugh and Jackie Kingston pictured) with some notable individual performances including U9 girls winner Holly O'Donnell, U12 2nd Lainey Sheridan and U17 boys winner Aidan O'Connor. There were great efforts across all club representatives and great to see participation as progression comes at different stages for juvenile runners.  Whilst this brings XC season to an end for most athletes we will send 3 qualifiers south next weekend to the National Uneven XC championships in Tramore racecourse in Waterford. Fionan O'Keeffe U15, Aidan O'Connor U17 and Ryan O'Neill U19 will all have the opportunity to test themselves against Irelands best young athletes and we wish them well.

At the Irish and British Masters cross country on Saturday 16th November 2024 on the Billy Neill Country Park, near Belfast our four Club athletes ran very well when representing Ireland. First of was new comer Sheelagh Jones who finished 4th in her W65 race and scored on the winning Ireland team. Next up...

Gold for David Scanlon. Bronze for Ryan O’Neill Silver medal for the U9 Girls Team Bronze for Senior Men’s Team. Rathfarnham WSAF’s David Scanlon brought home the clubs first Senior Men’s gold medal in the Dublin Cross Country Championships yesterday, a fantastic and well deserved achievement. Huge congratulations to David who has come through the club’s juvenile programme and is a great example to all our junior athletes. Hot on his heels thought is Ryan O’Neill, bronze medal in the MJ race and 1st in U19 category! A terrific result, well done Ryan. And another bronze medal for the Senior Men’s team of David Scanlon, Mitchell Byrne, Mark Ryan, and David Power, followed closely by Paul Fleming, Ciaran Alyward, and Jonathon Hughes. Laura Ryan has a great run in the Senior Women’s race, 12th overall. Meanwhile, Aisling O’Connor travelled to Wicklow for the Leinster Senior Cross Country Championship, coming 13th. Let’s not forget all our juveniles…. Silver medal for the U9 Girls Team, great running and great prospects for the future of the club! And finally, congratulations to all our juveniles who qualified for the National Championships in Tramore in December. Best of luck

It was a great day for Rathfarnham WSAF AC at the City West Campus at the Dublin cross country championship on Sunday 03 November 2024. David Scanlon created club history with a brilliant run just of the pace to hunt down his Clonliffe and DSD opponents on the final and 5th lap of a gruelling... The post Gold for David Scanlon at Dublin Senior Cross Country Championships, City West, Sunday 03 November 2024 appeared first on KounterFokus.

n Congratulations to all the Rathfarnham WSAF athletes who ran the 2024 Dublin City Marathon on Sunday 27th October 2024. First home for the Club was Marc Fitzachary – (M45) – 02:42:42, followed by Declan Quinn – (M40) – 02:55:48, Dermot Shiels – (M50) – 02:58:24, Micheál Murphy – (M40) – 02:58:49, Colm Murray –... The post Report from Dublin Marathon, Sunday 27th October 2024 appeared first on KounterFokus.

n At the Autumn Open Cross Country races in Abbotstown on Sunday 13th October we had some good performances by Club athletes. New club member Sheelagh Jones was first in F65 race and will represent us in the British and Irish International Cross Country races in Belfast on 16th November. Mark Ryan was 3rd in... The post Report from Autumn Open Cross Country races, Abbotstown, Sunday 13th October 2024 appeared first on KounterFokus.