After improving her personal best time for 10km at the Creane and Creane Enniscorthy 10km, Linda Byrne will return to her cross-county roots when she leads the Dundrum South Dublin team at the National Intercounties in ten days time.
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| Linda Byne and Maria McCambridge catch their breath! |
After running a London 2012 qualifying time for the marathon in Dublin last October, Byrne decided she wouldn’t chase a faster time at a spring marathon. She has returned to racing over the past few weeks, winning the AXA Raheny 5 in 26 mins 23 seconds and then finishing a fighting 11th for DSD at the European Clubs cross-country in Spain.
Enniscorthy was her third race in as many weeks, and she surprised even herself when she clocked a time of 32 minutes 52 seconds – almost two minutes inside Hazel Murphy’s record of last year – on a hilly course.
“When I ran the first kilometre in 3 mins 20 secs, I knew I was in good form so I went for it, but I’m still a surprised by that time,” said Byrne, who finished ninth overall. Her previous best of 34 mins 29 secs came in the Flora Women’s Mini Maathon two years ago when Maria McCambridge almost caught her on the line.
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| Brian Maher |
McCambridge was again the biggest threat in Enniscorthy and finished in 33.07 – also inside the previous record. Next up for the Letterkenny-based Dubliner is the Rome Marathon on March 18, where she hopes to make the London 2012 qualifying time of 2 hours 37 minutes.
Brian Maher proved the form man in the men’s race, beating national half marathon champion Sean Hehir of Rathfarnham. The Kilkenny athlete forced the pace from the start and by halfway, had built up a ten-metre lead on Hehir.
That gap soon stretched to 50 metres and Maher came home a comfortable winner in 30 minutes 6 seconds, with Hehir about 18 seconds adrift. The pair will now compete in the Hague Half Marathon next month.
A brilliant third was Raheny junior Kevin Dooney winner of the Leinster Schools senior cross-country title a few days earlier. With Simon Ryan fourth, Raheny were comfortable winners of the team prize, while home club Slaney Olympic led by Catherine Murphy were best of the women’s teams.
After missing out on qualifying for the World Indoors by one-hundredth of a second at the Woodie’s DIY National Indoors in Belfast, hurdler Ben Reynolds of North Down will chase the qualifying mark of 7.74 in Belgium this weekend.
Not under that kind of pressure is Derval O’Rourke who is pre-selected for the world championships. In Belfast, she won the 60m hurdles in 8.21.
A surprise winner of the men’s 60m in 6.79 secs was former Irish schools champion Seye Ogunlewe of Celbridge, now based in the UK.
Winning the men’s 200m in a personal best 21.86 was schoolboy Marcus Lawler of St Laurence O’Toole. Steffi Creaner of Celtic DCH won the women’s 200m in 24.31, also a PB.
UCD’s Ciara Everard won the 800m in 2:07.34, while Ferrybank’s Kelly Proper of Ferrybank showed a welcome return to form when winning long jump with a season’s best 6.34m.
Overseas athletes dominated the Coca Cola Larry McGuill Ras na hEireann in Oldbridge. Lizzie Adams of UK-based Team Puma won the women’s race with Ciara Durkan, in fifth place, best of the Irish. In the men’s race, a strong USA team took six of the top seven places with Landon Peacock the winner. Brian McMahon in eighth place was best of the Irish.
Record crowds are expected for Saturday’s 20th anniversary Garda St Raphael’s BHAA Cross-Country in Dublin’s Phoenix Park. Always one of the best organised races on the BHAA calendar, men and women will start together on the Magazine Hill course, although the women run two miles and the men double that. Registration is at the Garda Boat Club in Islandbridge – a handy 10-minute jog from the start.
* Also taking place in the Phoenix Park on Saturday morning (10am) is the Operation Transformation 5km. Expect delays in the area.
Rathfarnham veteran Turlough Conway made it three from three when he won hill running’s Winter League 9km race at Annagh Hill in Co Wexford. Second was Eagle’s Paul Tierney, with Jason Kehoe of Rathfarnham a close third and Dunboyne’s Karen O’Hanlon first woman. Next round is at Trooperstown, Co Wicklow on Sunday (11am)
With juvenile athletics experiencing a boom, the Dublin Indoors will take six days at two venues to resolve. First off are the older age groups (U16-19) in Santry on Friday evening. On Saturday, the middle distance runners take to the track at Tallaght, and a day later it’s back to Santry for technical events. A week later, an assortment of relays take place. Busy times!
Entries are filling up fast for the Ras UCD in Belfield on Saturday February 25. This race has a 600 limit, so if you want to run, enter now!
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