7th December 2008 - Results and Fixtures

Super Silver for Liz Cuskelly
Last Sunday Liz Cuskelly capped off a great year with a magnificent second place in the National Novice Cross Country Championships which were held in Ballyhaise Co.Cavan last Sunday. Maire Triona Keane also had a great race coming home in fourth place and this dynamic duo teamed up with Mary Daly and Una Mullen to win silver medals for Tullamore in the team competition.

The womens race was run over a distance of 3000 metres on a muddy energy sapping course and consisted of three laps. Right from the off Liz Cuskelly and Maire Triona Keane were at the head of the big field of runners along with Patricia Barry from Ferrybank. By the end of the first lap Barry had opened up a lead of about twenty metres on Liz Cuskelly with Keane a similar distance behind Cuskelly. Despite a gutsy run from Liz she could not rein in the Waterford girl and indeed had to dig deep to hold off a fast finishing Maire Ni Amhlaibh from Dundrum South Dublin. Liz’s second place was just reward for the amout of time and training that she puts in. Maire Triona Keane ran on strongly to finish a fine fourth place and she too can be proud of her efforts here and look forward with confidence to the future.

With a second and a fourth place secured all eyes were now on Mary Daly and Una Mullen who were fighting for every place in the quest for team honours.And fight they did with Mary Daly coming home in 44th position and Una Mullen finishing in 64th place. This was enough to win silver medals in the team competition behind the winners, Ennis Track A.C. with Donore Harriers third. This same quartet helped Offaly to fourth place.

Next it was the turn of the mens team who had to run 6000 metres. Despite missing a few runners through injury, everyone battled hard on the day and there were some good performances. Local man Barry Minnock who now lives in Dublin and runs for Rathfarnham A.C was always at the business end of the field and finished in a great second place. Barry ran for Offaly in the team competition and helped Offaly to sixth place.

John Harkin continued his good recent form to finish 45th followed closely by Catch grennan in 54th. Declan Madden who joined the club recently showed he could be a force to be reckoned with in the future with a fine run to finish 70th. Club Captain, John O’Connell was next home in 90th place. Barry Lambe made the long journey from Waterford to run and finished 104th while Darren Butler completed the Tullamore scoring in 119th place.Tullamore came 13th in the club category.

Full Results
Womens 3000 metres. 2 Liz Cuskelly 12.51; 4 Maire Triona Keane 13.06; 44 Mary Daly 14.57; 64 Una Mullen 16.08.

Mens 6000 metres. 2 Barry Minnock 22.48; 45 John Harkin 25.05; 54 catch Grennan 25.32; 70 Declan Madden 26.02; 95 John O’Connell 27.06; 104 Barry Lambe 27.30; 119 Darren Butler 29.52.

BHAA
John Todd ran in the Business houses Association 5km Road Race held within Marley Park in Rathfarnham last Saturday . On a course that was treacherous in places with icy patches John had a good run to finish first over 55 in a time of 18.20.

Fixtures:
11th December; Winter league- 3rd leg at 7pm
16th December; Grand National at 7pm. Presentation of prizes afterwards in Eugenes.
25th December; Goal Mile.
31st December; Round the Houses road race at 12 noon.

Training: Tuesday and Thursday at 6.30pm, Sunday morning at 8.30am (except on a Race day). New members always welcome. On these dark evenings, it is important that all members wear reflective clothing when running on the roads.

Memberships are now due and cost 35 euro for the year.