Sunday 9th October saw Dunboyne AC fielding full teams in both the men’s and women’s competitions in the 2016 the Meath Masters Cross Country Championships.
First up were the women, and as this was the first cross country venture of the season for everyone the nerves were rampant. All butterflies flew away of course with the starting gun and our ladies put on a fine show over the 4 kilometers of good ground – not a bit of mud in sight! First home was Clodagh Dunphy: Clodagh paced the race conservatively leaving her well placed to put the boot down on the third lap resulting in Silver in her category – well done Clodagh! Aoiffe Kerrigan was trailing Clodagh over the first two laps but a bout of sickness earlier in the week made its presence felt in the third lap, slowing her pace a little. As always Aoiffe pushed on regardless and came in 4th in her category, 3rd place just ahead of her. Next time Aoiffe! Roisin Bell was another in 4th, a steadily paced 4KM allowed her a sprint finish in the last 200M, enough to make up two places but not enough for the podium unfortunately. Heather Harold ran very strongly throughout – could cross country be Heather’s secret strength we wonder? Roll on the next race to see what Heather pulls out of the hat. Next in for the ladies was Mirella Herghegeliu who bravely defied an ongoing foot injury to run for the club, managing to pace the race steadily to finish well up the field.
Six KM for the lads was next and Phelim Glynn, Keith Eglington, Stephen Griffin and Warren McIntyre were the blue and white’s representatives in this race. Without full results (check back here soon for these) we can’t give Stephen and Warren’s positions but we know that Warren presented himself very well in his first XC race in – almost two years Warren? A strong return and lots more to be seen there from Warren. Stephen followed up with a big improvement on last weeks’ Novice, clearly giving it all he had at the finish line, well done Stephen. Keith also showed that racing can be the best training, knocking minutes off his time from last week’s novice as well as plenty of places, coming home in bronze position in his category after a particularly fast last lap. Phelim is, we are delighted to see, over his recent injury and swept aside the competition in his category to claim gold.
Well done all.
Next up is the Leinster Novice on Saturday 29th October.
