Maria – FOUR seconds off victory! Plus Team Results

Just FOUR seconds separated Maria McCambridge from victory at the SSE Airtricity Dublin Marathon today. With four miles to go,  Kenyan athlete Esther Manjiru Macharia had a slight lead, but McCambridge kept her in her sights and  was rewarded with a personal best time by a minute of 2:34.19. Brilliant!

A class apart in the wheelchair race was Patrick Monahan whose time of 1:52.43 is – we think – the fastest ever by an Irish athlete in the Dublin Marathon. Just imagine what he might have done with stronger opposition.

Winner of the men’s race was late entry Eliud Too of Kenya in 2:14.47. Sergiu Ciobanu of Clonliffe nailed down his third Irish title finished fifth overall in 2:21.01. Barry Minnock of Rathfarnham finished ninth overall and second Irish with his clubmate Eoin Flynn two places behind and third Irish. With Paul Moran home in 2:43.17 (and third M50), it looks like the team title will be going to  Rathfarnham WSAF. Tremendous run also by Pauline Curley to finish second woman and first W45.

Having a brilliant run to finish first over 45 was former Irish champion Pauric McKinney of Inishowen. His time of 2:33.14 meant he finished ninth of the Irish and fifth master. Also showing a clean pair of heels to many runners half her age was Sligo’s Lucy Brennan who  ran 3 hours and 50 seconds to finish first W55 – a time that would have seen her finish second over 40.

In the Irish Championships team competiton, Rathfarnham WSAF took the honours in the senior men’s category; Barry Minnock, Eoin Flynn and Paul Moran had a combined time of 7:31.00.Clonliffe (Sergiu Ciobanu, Gary O’Hanlon, Anthony Flannery) were second on 7:40.10 and City of Derry Spartans (Declan Reed, Paul McCafferty, Slevin) third on 8:00.09. An incredible 77 teams entered the M35 category with Sligo the winners. Of the women, Crusaders (Aoife Quigley, Nina Holmes, Laura Maria Schwirz) finished first in 10:09.12, with DSD (Maria McCambridge, Annette Kehoe, Eleanor Donoghue) second and Raheny Shamrock (Fiona Stack, Aileen Hooper, Rachel Markey) third.

However St Finbarr’s (Margo Dinan, Mary Sweeney, Gillian Cotter) won W35 gold – and with a time of 9:53.19, were fastest club team overall.  A total of 47 teams entered the W35 category compared to 17 senior; it shows that age does count when it comes to marathons. Connacht teams dominated the W50 category – Mayo, GCH and Athenry took the medals and indeed, were the only clubs that entered teams.  Ulster clubs, for some reason, didn’t figure in the women’s race.  Still, with 132 men’s teams and 47 women’s teams, the Dublin Marathon remains by some way the biggest event of the year for club runners.

ENDING his World Jog four years after he started it at the Dublin Marathon of 2010 was Tony Mangan, who was all smiles as he crossed the line in a leisurely 6 hrs 8 mins 40 secs.

SO WHICH CLUB had the largest entry in the marathon? From a hasty search of the results it looks like Dublin club Crusaders with an astonishing 55 finishers. Also well up there were Athenry and Drogheda and District, both 42, Tullamore Harriers  and Waterford both 41, Slaney Olympic 40+; Mayo AC, whose 37 finishers make up 21% of the entire club; Clonmel, Raheny Shamrock and West Waterford all 35 and  Bros Pearse 34. Eagle had 29, Sportsworld 26,  Tallaght 25,  North Belfast Harriers 24 and Craughwell 23.  Largest company entry would appear to be Airtricity with 35 – led home by Ernest Asursio in 3:17.34 (which means there’s no excuse for those posters; see below). PS: Keep those corrections coming in!

THUMB’S UP: To the Dublin organisers for having  full results live – although they were also in the Irish Independent a day later. That’s the way to do it!

THUMB’S DOWN: To whoever designed the SSE Airtricity posters sprinkled around the course. Clearly someone who hasn’t a clue about running. Although it is possible that they were trying to be funny …

* Pics at www.lindie.zenfolio.com and www.flickr.com/lindie

SSE Airtricity Dublin Marathon. www.tdl.ltd.uk)

Wheelchair – 1 Patrick Monahan 1:52.43, 2 Paul Hannan 2:05.56, 3 Luke Jones 2:09.33.

Men: 1 Eliud Too (Ken) 2:14.47, 2 Paul Koech Kimutai (Ken) 2:14.56, 3 Dmitry Safronov (Rus) 2:15.12, 4 Aleksi Sokolov (Rus) 2:20.19, 5 Sergiu Ciobanu (Clonliffe) 2:21.01, 6 Ayele Bekele 2:21.43. Irish: 2 Barry Minnock (Rathfarnham WSAF, M35) 2:22.42, 3 Eoin Flynn (Rathfarnham WSAF) 2:25.01. 4 Eddie McGinley (Annadale Striders) 2:25.04, 5 Paddy Hamilton (Annadale Striders) 2:25.55, 6 Gary O’Hanlon (Clonliffe, M40) 2:26.13, 7 Declan Reed (City of Derry, M40) 2:26.44, 8 Liam Feely (Nth Leitrim) 2:30.01, 9 Pauric McKinney (Inishowen, M45) 2:33.14, 10 Richard Gorman (Sligo, M35) 2:34.20. M35:  2 Richard Gorman  (Sligo) 2:34.20, 3 Peter Mooeny 2:34.25. M40: 1  Lezan Kimutai (Ken) 2:22.34,2 O’Hanlon, 3 Reed. M45: 2 Eugene McCarthy 2:39.24, 3 Andrea Rigo 2:40.38.  M50: 1 Tommy Hughes (NBH) 2:36.01, 2 2 Cathal O’Connell (St Finbarr’s) 2’37.06, 3 Paul Moran (Rathfarnham WSAF) 2:43.17.  M55: 1 Stephen Griffin (Tralee Hrs) 2:50,00, 2 Martin Halvey 2:54.07, 3 Vidar Ellefsen 2:57.27. M60: 1 Nollaig McEntaggart (Mullingar Hrs) 3:05.08, 2 Philip Piper 3:09.08, 3 Aires Sao Pedro 3:15.42. M65: 1 Graham Newton (Axe Valley) 3:24.01, 2 William Clews  (Nomads) 3:29.43, 3 Bengt Lindgren 3:51.00. Irish: John McCann (Omagh  Hrs) 3:37.10.  M70: 11 Manuel Faisca 3:46.19, 2 Jack Cabery (NBH) 3:54.30, 3 Robert Kay 4:09.39. M75: 1 Sean Lambe 5:05.42, 2 Cyrle Chaney 5:34.59, 3 Yves Herbreteau 5:45.06. M80: John Collins (Limerrick) 6:56.05.  Teams  – Senior (44 total): 1 Rathfarnham WSAF 7:31.00, 2 Clonliffe 7:40.10, 3 City of Derry Spartans 8:00.06, 4 Annadale Striders 8:09.03, 5 Rahney Shamrock 8:13.29, 6 Crusaders 8:52.27. M35 (77 total) : 1 Sligo AC 8:24.16, 2 Mullingar Harriers 8:24.16, 3 Inishowen 8:25.42, 4 SBR 8:37.42, 5 Clonmel 8:41.26, 6 Tallaght 8:45.32. M50  (9 total): 1 St Finbarr’s 2 9:44.43, 2 Clonliffe Harriers 9:51.39, 3 West Waterford  9:54.31, 4  Tallaght, 5 Clonmel, 6 Mayo

Women: 1 Esther Manjiru Macharia (Ken) 2:34.15, 2 Maria McCambridge (DSDS, W35) 2:34.19, 3 Meseret Godana (Eth) 2:38.54, 4 Annelie Johansson (Swe), W35) 2:41.09, 5 Gemma Rankin (GB) 2:41.54, 6 Marina Kovaleva (Rus) 2:44.06. Irish: 2 Pauline Curley (Tullamore Hrs, W45) 2:48.04, 3 Ailish Malone (Clonliffe) 2:48.50, 4 Breege Connolly (NBH, W35) 2:49.38, 5 Norah Newcombe (Ballina) 2:51.00, 6 Fiona Stack (Raheny) 2:51.38, 7 Nollaig O’Neill (Leevale, W40) 2:52.27, 8 Hannah Oldroyd 2:57.05. W40: 2 Helen Barry ( Sli Cualann) 3:02.30, 2 Angela McCann (Clonmel) 3:05.50. W45: 2 Margo Dinan ( St Finbarr’s) 3;11.51, 3 Joan Ennis (Grange Fermoy) 3:14.26.  W50: 1 Inez Anne Haaga 3:09.34, 2 Mary Sweeney (St Finbarr’s) 3:16.55, 3 Sarah Heatley (Malvern) 3:27.51. W55: 1 Lucy Brennan (Sligo) 3:00.50,2 Mary Jennings (Waterford) 3:31.48, 3 Bente Hansen 3:31.48. W60: 1 Mary Lynch  3:45.57, 2 Celine Le Floc’h 3:45.57, 3 Eva Trish Cook 3:55.10. W65: Sue Nicholls (Burnham on Sea) 4:43.45. W70: 1 Frances Breslauer 4:35.57, 2 Terri Gough (W Waterford) 5:57.15, 3 Terry Blake 5:41.08. Teams – Senior (17 total): 1 Crusaders 10:09.12, 2 DSD 10:22.18, 3 Raheny Shamrock 10:40.39, 4 St Abban’s 10:42.28, 5 Crusaders A 10:51.29, 6 North East Runners 10:52.45. W35 (47 total): 1 St Finbarr’s 9:53.19, 2  Athenry 10:24.47, 3 Midleton 10:34.26, 4 North East Runners 10:43.03, 5 Sli Cualann 10:47.03, 6 Grange Fermoy 10:48.00. W50:  (3 total); 1 Mayo AC 12:48.31, 2 Galway City Hrs 14:12.35, 3 Athenry 14:27.19.