***The Dunboyne Senior success bandwagon rolls on – Meath Masters XC Champs***

Not content with dominating at the Meath Novice Cross Country Championships in Athboy last Sunday, a dedicated band of our senior athletes were out again competing for honours in Day 2 of the Meath Cross Country Championships. This time they were competing in the Masters category at Greenanstown just outside Stamullen on Star of the Sea AC’s infamous cross country field on Sunday 8th October.

The very pleasant, dry and mild day was welcomed by the athletes as they braced themselves to do battle for our club over one of the most demanding cross country courses in the county.

Similar to the previous weekend the Senior teams were following on from the hugely successful individual and team performances from their Juvenile club mates who were competing over the course beforehand.

Spurred on by the success of the juveniles the Masters women attacked their 4k race right from the gun with Jane Bandilla particularly positive and setting the early pace. Not far behind and right up there was Fiona Reid while the rest of the Dunboyne team made up of Clodagh Dunphy, Norma Farrell and Annette Conroy were all to the fore as the race developed. Jane was utterly dominant throughout and ran out a very impressive winner making it a great day for the Bandilla family as daughter Amelia also brought home a gold medal as part of the victorious under 9 team earlier in the day. Well done the Bandillas!

Jane’s wasn’t the only Dunboyne AC singlet on the podium. Fiona Reid ran a cracking race and was very strong throughout, finishing in 3rd place overall and by doing so also plundered a gold medal in her category. Super running Fiona.

All the team ran really well on the day with Clodagh finishing very strongly and grabbing a silver medal in her category. Norma battled hard throughout and finished to the fore also netting a well deserved Silver medal in her category. Annette also ran very well and maintained a fast pace throughout battling all the way to the line. All the team made short work of the punishing hills to run away with the team competition winning a richly deserved team gold medal. Yet again the Dunboyne women were on top in Meath cross country racing. Well done ladies on another brilliant performance.

The men’s race was a challenging 6k and from the off the pace was fast. The men’s team packed well, not far off the pace and within the main body of the field as they prepared to work their way through.

Derek Finegan was our most prominent runner in the early stages and so it proved as the race developed as he powered up and down the hills to lead our men’s team home. Derek’s powerful run was enough to net him a hard fought bronze medal in his category. Well done Derek. The rest of the team were also in flying form. Gerry O’Reilly, another runner following up on his two daughters heroics of earlier in the day (when Amy and Ruth won a team silver with the u11’s) ran very strongly to win a silver medal in his catagory. Ger Solan was involved at the business end also and ran well to win bronze in his category. Michael Cornyn dug deep to also win a bronze in his catagory after a fine run and with Warren McIntyre and Paul Gorey also running fine races it was no surprise to see the lads win the team competition. Well done lads on a great day’s running

Well done to all our senior athletes who turned out, ably cheered on by our Juvenile teams. It was great to see club mates old and young shouting for Dunboyne AC runners as they passed. Another good day for our club with Dunboyne AC athletes to the fore in all races and with another 2 senior team medals in the pocket it was a good day’s work by all concerned. Well done all.