Britton First European at Antrim International

Fionnuala Britton underlined her continued improvement when she finished fourth and first European at the Antrim International Cross-Country at Greenmount.  Left trailing in her wake was Britain’s Charlotte Purdue who finished five seconds behind the flying Irish woman. Gemma Steel, who took silver at the European Championships last month, was well beaten for sixth place.

Ahead of this trio were three Ethiopians, running for Bahrain and Belgium. As Ian O’Riordan wrote in an excellent Irish Times article a few weeks ago, athletics is the only sport that allows athletes to switch nationality for no other than commercial reasons. An easy way to stop athletes switching to a random country for mercenary reasons would be a five-year “out” period.

Also having good runs for Ireland in Antrim were  Sara Treacy 9th and newly-crowned national novice champion Michelle McGee who was 11th.

In the men’s race, Michael Mulhare was first for Ireland in seventh place, just behind Britain’s Andy Vernon who was sixth. Intercounty champion Paul Pollock was ninth. Kenya’s Japhet Korir, the current world cross-country champion, won the race.

Clonliffe’s Aaron Hanlon showed a welcome return to form when he won the men’s junior/U17 race, while St Laurence O’Toole’s Siobhra O’Flaherty won the women’s junior U17 race.

* An interesting result at the South Dublin County Council Cross-Country in Tymon Park, where Kevin Maunsell was a clear winner of the men’s 4-mile race ahead of Irish international steeplechaser Tomas Cotter. Caroline Crowley won the women’s 2-mile.

* Over a thousand turned out in total for the four Dublin area Parkruns on Saturday – a lot of New Year’s resolutions kicking in!

Saturday January 4

IAAF Antrim International C-C/Northern Ireland Senior C-C,Greenmount Campus. Incorp ANI C-C League Rd 5 (of 8) and Celtic C-C. Full result at www.athleticsni.org.

Women –

International/senior/masters’ 6km (124 finishers) : 1 Mimi Belete (Eth/BRN) 18.07, 2 Maryam Jamal (Eth/BRN) 18.08, 3 Almesch Belete (Eth/Bel) 18.21, 4 Fionnuala Britton (Irl) 18.23, 5 Charlotte Purdue (GBR) 18.28, 6 Gemma Steel (GBR) 18.43, 7 Rose Smith (Sco) 18.59, 8 Juliet Potter (Eng) 19.08, 9 Sarah Treacy (Irl) 19.15, 10 Rachel Felton (Eng) 19.19. Other Irish: 11 Michelle McGee (Irl) 19.23, 12 Maria O’Sullivan (U23 Celtic) 19.28, 14 Eimear Mullan (Springwell) 19.42, 18 Gladys Ganiel (NIR) 20.13, 19 Mary Mulhare (W23 Celtic) 20.18, 21 Danielle Fegan (NIR) 20.23, 22 Fiona Clinton (DSD) 20.26, 24 Una Britton (Kilcoole) 20.32, 25 Cathy McCourt, NBH, W40) 26 Lauren Quee (NIR) 20.49, 28 Rachel Gibson (NIR) 20.59 29 Heather Foley (NIR) 20.59, 32 Mary Margaret Meade (NBH, W35) 21.17 34 Karen Alexander (Sperrin Hrs) 21.27, 35 Meghan Ryan (U23 Celtic/DSD) 21.30. W45: Donna Evans (Finn Valley) 22.06. W50: Kay Byrne (Finn Valley) 22.00.

Jun/U17/Celtic (76): 1 Siobhra O’Flaherty (Irl/St LOT, W17) 12.47, 2 Gillian Black (Sco, W17) 13.20, 3 Caitriona Graves (Sco, W20) 13.23. Other Irish(top 25): 6 Ella Fennelly (Irl/DSD/W20) 13.30, 10 Isabel Carron (Irl/Skerries/W17) 13.38, 13 Clodagh O’Reily (Ulster/ Annalee/W20) 13.41, 15 Sarah Miles (Irl/DSD/W20)13.48, 16 Eimear Fitzpatrick (DSD W17) 13.49, 18 Linda Conroy (Irl/Mullingar/W20) 13.50, 20 Isabelle Odlum (DSD, W2013.53, 21Sorcha Humphries (DSD, W20) 13.58. 23 Aoife Hamilton (Irl/W Waterford, W17) 14.05, 24 Rachel O’Shea (Irl/W20)14.08, 25 Aisling Quinn (Ferrybank, W20) 14.09. Teams – 1 Birtley 53, 2 Inbhear Dee 105, 3 Omagh Harriers 142. Celtic U17: 1 Ireland 61, 2 Scotland 94, 3 Wales 140. Celtic U20: 1 Scotland 33, 2 Ireland 63.

U15 – 1 Kate Waugh (Birtley AC) 12.51, 2 Lucy Jones (Charnwood) 12.59, 3 Cari Jones (Menai TF) 13.29, 4 Bethan Evans (Pontyclun AC) 14.23, 5 Hannah Power (W Waterford) 14.30, 6 Edel Monaghan (Omagh Hrs) 14.46.

Men’s 8km (141 finishers) : 1 Japhet Korir (Ken) 28.40, 2 Thomas Akeyo (Uga) 28.42, 3 Emmanuel Bett (Ken) 28.43, 4 Cornelius Kipruto Kangogo (Kan) 29.14, 5 Titus Mbishei (Ken) 29.30, 6 Andy Vernon (GBR) 29.34, 7 Michael Mulhare (Irl) 29.47, 8 Aziz Lahbabi (Mar) 30.05, 9 Paul Pollock (Annadale) 30.08, 10 Adam Hickey (Eng) 30.12 . Other Irish (top 35): 11 Mick Clohisey (IRL) 30.23, 14 Stephen Scullion (NIR) 30.54, 21 Gary Murray (NIR/St Malachy’s) 31.26, 22 James McCarthy (East Cork) 31.26, 23 Sergiu Ciobanu (Clonliffe) 31.28, 26 Joe McAllister (NIR/St Malachy’s) 31.40, 28 Jayme Rossiter (Clonliffe) 31.48, 30 Andrew Agnew (NIR/Annadale) 32.03, 32 Eoghan Totten (Newcastle) 32.22, 33 Gerard Gallagher (Finn Valley) 32.25, 34 Declan Reed (NIR/City of Derry) 32.41, 35 Glenn Phair (Annadale) 33.00.

U17/Juniors/Celtic (104 finishers): 1 Aaron Hanlon (Clonliffe, M20) 17.12, 2 Euan Gilman (Kilbarchan AC, M17) 17.23, 3 Aidan Thompson (Sco, M17) 17.30, 4 Andrew Coscoran (Irl/Star of the Sea, M20) 17.39, 5 Jonathan Glen (Sco, M20) 17.41, 6 Ryan Sharkey (Ulster/LaganValley/M20) 17.45.  (top 26): 10 Killian Mooney (DSD, M20) 17.50, 11 Connor Christie (Ulster/Springwell, M20) 17.51, 16 Ferghal Curtin (Irl/Youghal, M17) 18.09, 20 Alan Monaghan(Irl/Bohermeen, M17) 18.16, 21 Shane Hughes Irl/Mullingar, M17) 18.17, 22 Patrick Mac Gabhann (DSD, M20) 18.20, 23 Thomas Lynn (Irl, M20) 18.21, 24 Andrew Wright (Ulstr/Willowfield, M20) 18.22, 26 Rick Nally (DSD, M20) 18.25. Teams – Club: 1 DSD

U15 (67 finishers): 1 Patrick Shaw (Leinster Athletics) 12.26, 2 Darragh Drury (Shercock) 12.31, 3 Alex Hunter (Ratoath) 12.32, 4 Jack McCullagh (Leinster Athletics) 12.39, 5 Oran O’Flaherty (St LOT) 12.44, 6 Michael Power (W Waterford) 12.47. Teams – 1 Leinster Athletics 15, 2 St Michael’s Enniskillen A 32, 3 Ratoath AC 35.

South Dublin County Council BHAA Cross-Country, Tymon Park, Templeogue. www.bhaa.ie

Women’s 2m (50 finishers): 1 Caroline Crowley (Dublin Solcs) 12.01, 2 Emilia Dan (W40) 12.31, 3 Tracey Williams 12.51, 4 Clare Sullivan (Irish Runner) 12.59, 5 Anne Curley (DFA, W40) 13.05, 6 Vanessa Sallier (Mercer, W40) 13.12. W45: Orla Gormley (Aer Lingus) 13.18, 2 Miriam McCormack (Grey Arch) 13.56, 3 Laura Flynn (Dublin Solcs) 14.48. W50: 1 Mary Watters (Watters Bus Hire) 13.30, 2 Susan Walsh (Revenue) 14.56, 3 Aileen Melody (ESB) 16.05. W55: 1 Sheelagh Jones (Teachers) 13.24, 2 Nuala Reilly (Fair Gate HC) 13.30, 3 Mary Jennings (Teachers) 14.56. W65: Evelyn McNelis 16.26. W70: 1 Phyllis Browne 15.06. W75: Anne Woodlock (A Collins) 18.10.

Men’s 4m (199 finishers): 1 Kevin Maunsell 21.49, 2 Tomas Cotter 22.20, 3 Neil Callaghan 22.29, 4 Patrick Roche 22.45, 5 Paul Fleming (IDB, M35) 22.51, 6 Ian Conroy 22.56. M35: 2 Ronan Kearns ( Dept of Ent) 23.21, 3 Niall Gorham (ACC) 23.58. M40: 1 David Hipwell (An Posrt) 24.37, 2 Simon Allen 24.40, 3 Gary Williams 25.19. M45: 1 Brian Kelly (Norton Group_ 24.04, 2 Phelim Glynn (Eircom) 24.18, 3 Aidan Brennan 25.03. M50: 1 Gerry Doyle (Irish Water) 23.56, 2 Bruce Philips (DCC) 26.23, 3 Aidan O Gara (Eircom) 26.58. M55: 1 Jack Tyrrell 26.01, 2 Chris Keeling (Sambra Fyffe) 26.03, 3 Brendan Ryan (Ordnance Survey) 26.45. M60: 1 Noel Hanratty ( Sec Teaches) 26.49, 2 John Todd (Cadbury’s) 27.12, 3 Vincent Clohisey (DSFA) 28.38. M65: 1 Peter McDrmott (DIT) 31.30, 2 Ray McCormack (Enterprise Ire) 33.39, 3 Jimmy Byrne (ESB) 34.08. M70: Terry Mee (Dublin Taxis) 32.36, M75: Sean Lambe (Glanbia) 39.39, 2 Seamus Kilcullen (Enterprise Ire) 52.44.