The traditional pre-marathon fixture of the Leinster Novice and Masters was brought forward a day this year and the Masters competition has been put back in Dunboyne, in January. As a result of that numbers were up over the past few years as Clubs hadn’t to stretch their XC athletes across two teams on Saturday, all were running in the Novice competition. Phelim, Emilia and Tommy had rallied the troops and two good novice teams from Dunboyne travelled to the Westmeath venue.

The event was held on the grounds of New Forest Golf Club, Tyrrellspass, and it looked more of a participant friendly venue than some of the courses athletes have competed on in this race in the past few years. The ground did become quite tacky once the Juveniles were finished, ahead of the two main races on the day.

Our hopes were high for our women on Saturday. We’ve been competitive in all women’s endurance competitions lately and the Novice was to prove no different. 5 athletes travelled down to compete for us to take on the 4k XC course: Heather, Clodagh, Ciara, Eva and Laura.

Laura Buckley put in the Dunboyne AC performance of the day, finishing on the podium in silver position, a fantastic run, at a high level of competition. Clearly inspired and encouraged by her performance, the ladies ran hard and all had strong runs. Eva was 2nd Dunboyne finisher, just a minute behind Laura, and both women combined to place on the Meath team that won bronze in the county competition. More medals!

Just a minute behind Eva was Clodagh Dunphy, still a relative novice to the XC game, but coming into it off a strong base of training over the summer with the marathon crew. Ciara O’Neill Moffitt isn’t fazed by terrain or difficult conditions, and excelled in one of her first competitive outings in the blue and white. Just 45 seconds behind Ciara was Heather Harold. Heather had a super XC season last year, was hampered over the summer with injuries, but has clearly put these behind her judging by her performance.

The ladies finished a highly credible 5th in the team competition, not all that many places off a medal.

In the men’s race we’d also 5 of our crew in action, Keith, Warren, Phelim, Morgan and Niall.

Niall Cornyn proved his class on the track over the summer, and we’re delighted to see him in XC action now, hopefully with shin splint woes behind him. He led our men home with an excellent 28th place in a time of 18:05 for the 6k distance. Coach Phelim always shows how it’s done, and did so on Saturday again, just 10 places and 12 seconds behind Niall.

Morgan McDonagh is an ever-present name on our XC teams and he finished just a minute behind Phelim. Both Keith and Warren have been part of nearly all our men’s teams this XC season and both are improving with every race. February and the National Masters is the season’s goal for them and both will be an integral part of a strong Dunboyne men’s team for that fixture.

Well done to our ten athletes who ran so well.

Full results at: http://www.athleticsleinster.org/current-year-results