Nov 6, 20233 min read

Medals in the Mud! (UPDATED)

Updated: Nov 8, 2023

The DSD senior & Junior endurance Squad descended on an extremely muddy Santry Demense yesterday, Sunday 5th November.

The day which began at 11am with our U9’s concluded at 3.30PM with our Senior Men taking a battling 3rd place and the Senior Women taking a well deserved 2nd in the team events

Prior to that the Junior Women finished 1st and the Junior men 2nd rounding out a very successful day for the club.

Preceding the senior & Junior championships was the Dublin juvenile (uneven ages) cross country championships with DSD teams turning out in every age group from U9 to U19.

Gold Medals were won by our u.15 girls and by our u.15 boys; Silver Medals went to: U.13 Girls; U.13 Boys; u.19 Boys; u.19 Girls, and Bronze to our u.17 Boys.

Team results below!

With the ground nicely churned up from the earlier races it was time for the juniors, which incorporated the U/19 juvenile Championships, and then the seniors. It was always going to be tough day for all of the women athletes as their race distances have all increased substantially since last year, the juniors 5000 and seniors 9,000.

Our winning Junior Women’s team was led home by Saoirse O’Brien in 5th place in a welcome return to XC after a year disrupted with Injury. Saoirse was followed home by Isabella Tomkin Beddy in 6th, Ciara Wilson Bowen (switching from the smooth surfaces of the race walkers world to support her teammates) 14th, Isabella Chambers 15th. Isabella T.B, Ciara and Isabella Chambers also combined to secure 2nd place in the U19 team event.

The junior men racing over 5,000m, also ran very strongly with great team packing. Declan O’Meara led the team home in 5th, Jamie Byrne 6th, Sean McMahon 8th, Andrew McGilton 9th. Despite these super performances the team had to settle for 2nd behind a very strong Clonliffe team.

In the U19 boys category the team finished 2nd with Jamie finishing 3rd, Sean 5th, Andrew 6th and well supported by Ciaran Connolly 22nd and Lochlann Hannon 23rd.

The senior women’s this year had their distance increased from 6K to 9K and despite the daunting prospects of 6 x 1500 laps of energy sapping mud all 4 team members ‘rolled up their sleeves’ and stuck to the task securing a super 2nd place team finish. Eimear Maher led the team home in 5th place in what was her debut outing at a Senior championship. The ever youthful Maria McCambridge gave everything to the cause collapsing across the line in 6th, Serena Tuffy ran a very strong race to finish 7th and Emma Goddard closing out the scoring in 17th .

Finally the senior men’s 9K took off on a well-trodden Santry course. It was great to see two athletes new to the Senior ranks, like Eimear transitioning this year, up from our junior ranks, leading the team home. Morgan Clarkson 7th and Eanna Moynihan O’Bradaigh 9th helped secure a 3rd place finish for the team with David Gormley running strongly in 11th , Robert Corbally 25th, Gary Crossan 44th and Adriele Rina-Mello in 48th.

With strong team results throughout the program of juvenile events the future looks positive for the DSD endurance program.

Thanks to Donal for report.

Team results:

U.13 Girls Team 2nd

4 Olivia Butler

7 Julia Butler

20 Skye McConnon

33 Anne O’Kennedy

U.13 Boys Team 2nd

8 Harry O’Meara

10 Dylan McCambridge Crossan

16 Patrick Hosey