Dublin Junior & Senior Cross Country Championships at Citywest
Conditions were ideal for the Dublin Senior and Junior Cross Country Championships at the
Citywest Campus yesterday. There were strong results all-round from the DSD athletes.
The Junior (u20) men started proceedings with a strong field dominated by DSD and
Clonliffe teams. DSD went to the line with 12 athletes. It did not take long for Sean Quinn to
make his mark, surging to the front after just 500m of the 4,500m race. Only Sean Cronin of
Conliffe tried to go with the intense pace set by Quinn. After the first of the three 1500m laps, Quinn had opened up a commanding lead which continued to grow to the end. Sean winning in 13.28, - 31 seconds ahead of second placed Louie Woodger of Metro/St Brigids. Jamie Byrne rallied strongly over the last lap to secure 4 th place, with Andrew McGilton 11 th and Sean McMahon 14th, rounding out the scoring for the U20 team competition.
In the team event DSD and Clonliffe both finished with 30 points however Clonliffe were
awarded the win on count back.
The Senior Women were next to go to the line and Emma McEvoy wasted no team in taking
control, moving effortlessly to the front after the first of 5 laps. Emma’s lead was to grow to
over one minute by the time she took the tape, to win her first Dublin Senior Cross Country title. Emma was supported by the ever-young Maria McCambridge who finished 6th , Serena Tuffy, who ran a strong race in 8th place and Emma Goddard in 20th. DSD taking 2nd team
place.
In the senior men's race there was a terrific battle with Clonliffe Harriers for both the
individual and team titles. Over the early stages of the 7,500m race both clubs had 3 athletes in the lead pack. As halfway approached the pack started to break apart, Ian Guiden of
Clonliffe was pushing the pace but DSD’s Eanna Moynihan O’Bradaigh wasn’t prepared to
give an inch. Eanna swapped the lead several times with the Clonliffe man and David
Scanlon of Rathfarnham. Eanna was followed closely by Killian Mooney who was making strong progress through the field, Aaron Donnelly, Patrick Elliot and Declan O’Meara running as a pack and all having personal duels with Clonliffe athletes.
In the end Eanna had to settle for 3rd and with Killian 6th , Patrick 7th , Aaron 9th; Declan 14;
David Gormley 26; Gavin Callery 36, we were in the mix to challenge Clonliffe for team
honours. Unfortunately, in the end, we were to lose out by 4points with the team taking D.S.D's third 2nd place finish of the day.
It was a strong showing from our athletes, as we look toward to the National Cross Country
Championships scheduled for the 17th November in Fermanagh.
Well done to all!
(Thanks to Donal for his report)
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