Category: Cross-country running

all photos courtesy of Andrew Hanney unless otherwise stated

Coverage also in the Irish Independent.

The year always begins fast with lots of county and provincial running action on cross-country and on indoor track as well as the IMRA mountain races looming towards the end of the month.

Our team came together for the first team in 2024 to run at the Wicklow Master’s hosted once more in Shanganagh by Bray Runners on a new course as the regular course was waterlogged.

Glendalough AC has competed in this event since 2019 and with 17 runners this year we beat our previous participation record of 13 from that year.

WOMEN’S RACE

The women began on the slightly shorter than 4 km course consisting of a short and two long laps at 10 am. They had a good record to defend having won the M35-49 teams in 2019 and having taken silver last year. This year’s course was flat like the previous incarnation but with several slippy sections including a small ‘mud-trench’ to occupy minds once per lap.

In an incredibly tight race Loraine Creane set off strong after Parnell’s runaway leader Catherine O’Connor with Rachel Wisdom closing the gap towards the end only to be outsprinted near the line by Parnell’s Caroline Ayton. Donna Quinn followed 10 seconds later in 5th with Aoife Joyce (13th) and the returning Claire Thompson (16th) rounding out the team. Claire earned her 14th and 15th cross-country medals (a club best) at her first run-out as a Master’s athlete in this discipline.

In the end Parnell edged it 10 points to 11 but all members of the team earned individual medals with Loraine Creane’s gold medal in the F40 the pick up the crop.

MEN’S RACE

Both men and women’s field had record numbers meaning good competitive races with plenty of action, passing and repassing and dramatic sprint finishes. Reigning club champion Paul Duffy carved out a 200m lead on our next runner (Rene borg early on) nearly from the gun and as the race progressed Angus Tyner drifted into 2nd place and led home the men’s M55 team to the first Team Gold medal in cross-country since our foundation 10 years ago.

Rene Borg came in next as second scorer for the M35 team in his 16th cross-country outing for the club (the most of any club member – Donna Quinn is next with 15).

Next was Graham Bush shortly after as the second scorer for the M55 team. Positions were crucial - Alan Kennedy was the third scorer as the M55 won by a single point (18 v 17) ahead of Kilcoole.

Our O35 men finished a respectable 5th out of 7 teams with cross-country debuts to Kevin Ferguson, Corrie Adams, James Heggie and Tadeusz Cantwell. The men packed well with three runners between 23 and 24 minutes and 4 within 24 and 25 minutes.

As a final anecdote on the day: Anthony Breen was not a scorer but still a counter on the M55 team and thus recipient of the Team Gold. This was his sixth cross-countrymedal: the most of any of our male runners (Angus Tyner has 5).

Paul Duffy on lap 1 (all photos courtesy of Andrew Hanney)

Heavy rainfall Saturday had set the scene for true cross-country muckishness as the county’s finest lined up for the most prestigious of the year’s four championships in the discipline: the Wicklow Senior. A fitting warmup for those eager to rush home and watch the Irish in action at the European XC.

Rene Borg on the first downhill

The day started poorly for us with 3 out of our 6 man team being unable to make the start line due to illness and work commitments. This meant individual standings was the order of the day and particular interest was the battle between René Borg and Paul Duffy for who would take the title of Club Champion of the year. A victory to either would decide it in their favour regardless of how well the other ran. Diarmuid Kavanagh – also running – was unfortunately out of the running haven’t conceded a DNF in round 9 but as things went, he could not ultimately have won anyway.

Diarmuid (front) and Rene on lap 1 when field was still closely bunched

MEN’S SENIOR RACE

We had no women’s team this year so all eyes were on the three musketeers. Paul went out hard and gained 100m to Diarmuid and 200m to Rene. He would more or less hold this distance the whole way although he conceded a drizzle of spots to other club runners through the race.

Diarmuid Kavanagh on the second descent

Diarmuid sat in second spot until midway through lap 2 when René caught up. This would be the finishing order with Paul first, Rene 38 seconds later and Diarmuid a further 27s down. All placed in the middle of the field.

CLARA VALE – IN REVERSE

Our regular Winter League hit it’s penultimate round with the traditional Clara Vale courses (5k and 9k) run in reverse – Ben Lewis, Aoife Joyce and Yvonne Brennan competed as many others were away on holidays or engaged with racing. Results to follow!

BHAA Central Bank 4 mile XC

Diarmuid Kavanagh and coach René Borg achieved the rather esoteric achievement of being the first Glendalough AC runners to attend a race organised by the Business Houses Athletics Association (BHAA). This meant that although club singlets were allowed (and worn by many), runners were first of all competing for the company or employer.

The race had hastily been organised as the newly crowned National M40 champion – Eoin Flynn of Rathfarnham WSAF. Working alongside Rene in Running Coach Ireland this was a rare chance to show off the light blue company colours for Eoin who normally resides in the Canaries. He promptly took full advantage winning the race with a safe margin after the early leader had faded on the back off a 4:50 first mile! Overall, it was a strong field where former Snowdon winner Sarah McMahon (then Mulligan) won the ladies race and notaries such as Brian McMahon (Irish hill running international on multiple occasions) down in 8th place.

Diarmuid Kavanagh – wearing our blazing yellow – had set off hard but both he and Rene had to concede more places than they gained in the second half (with Rene eventually overtaking Diarmuid on the latter part of the 3rd of 4 laps). The course was a far cry from familiar cross-country venues in Wicklow: relatively flat around multiple rugby fields but featuring two descent into strong head-wind and a staggering 52 sharp turns!

Rene’s time of 25:36 was the third fastest 4 mile run in the club’s history and the fastest on cross-country or trail

Twenty-eight races have already been bagged by our runners since January 1st and seven more where in action although our line-up was missing Paul Duffy, Gavin Kennedy and Marcus Murphy – all taking precautions after recent minor injuries.

Those of our runners registered with parent club Sli Cualann donned the Navy and Orange with Diarmuid Kavanagh, Aran Lynham, Graham Bushe and Loraine sporting our regular colours while they await their transfer across to the mother ship in March.

The women were off first over the traditional 4 km distance with Donna Quinn and Loraine Creane. Running for Sli Cualann Donna registered another solid performance finishing 26th out of 90 runners and being the second Wicklow woman home for the team that finished 6th out of 10 club teams. The county was somewhat overmatched by the bigger neighbours on the day finishing 7th out of 7. Wicklow Intermediate champion Loraine Creane became the first to carry the yellow vest at a Leinster event and finished in the top half of the field.

Next up where the men with a large Wicklow presence – 14 Sli Cualann athletes plus Graham Bushe running as Glendalough AC and four Bray Runners for a total of 19 Wicklow athletes out of the 135 starters (by some distance the largest field of the day).

Graham Bushe was our lead runner for the full race with coach Rene in close attendance and they crossed the line within 13 seconds of each other in 94th and 97th spot with Rene serving as the fourth counter for the Sli Cualann team that finished 9th out of 12 and also the Wicklow County team (finishing 7th out of 7 counties). the over-50 men’s team came a bit closer to glory with 4th spot. Anthony Breen was the third Glendalough AC runner (also representing SC) and kept a 20 runners behind him to finish 116th.

In the Sli Cualann team, Rene was the 7th runner out of 14 and Anthony the 12th over the 6 km.

Finally, our ‘young men’ could tow the line for the longest ordeal of the championship: the 8 km men’s race which added two of the slightly faster 1 km loops to the two 3 km loops done by the ‘elderly gents’. Aran Lynham gave himself a bit of rebaptism of fire after a season away from running (focused on GAA with Laragh GFC) and a holiday away in Zimbabwe and in the end decided to treat it as a good solid training finishing 37th out of 37 in a smaller than expected field. Diarmuid Kavanagh’s partial conversion from cyclist to runner continues apace and he ran well to finish 31st in 34:04.

For County Wicklow the excitement was at the front where Parnell’s Derek Crammond led the race most of the way before eventually being edged by Mullingar’s Vinny Connolly. He had the silver well wrapped up, however, and with strong runs from many other Sli Cualann athletes (including two master’s athletes who stepped down to fill the void left by Joe O’Dowd’s illness, the Intermediate Men could add a Silver medal to their recent Gold from the Leinster Novice.