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29th
March 2011
Delight in Dunboyne and Antrim Team Silver for Shane
Local runners saw competitive action at three venues over
the weekend, Stranorlar, Antrim and Dunboyne and impressed
particularly at the latter two races.Sundays Dunboyne 4 mile
road race saw the City of Derry Spartans quartet of Greg Roberts,
Declan Reed, Aaron Doherty and M50 Dermot Connolly, combine
to claim third team honours behind Dublin giants Clonliffe
Harriers and Raheny Shamrock and for good measure, Peter Lilburn
clocked a swift 23m 58s to easily lift the M55 age group prize.
In Antrim on Saturday Shane McGowan led the Irish Schools
Junior Boys squad to team silver in the Aviva Schools International
cross country with an excellent ninth place finish and JP
Williamson was the third Ulster scorer in the U20 Home Countries
race. As expected the powerful English squads dominated this
meeting but the local performances were positive,given the
timing of the event at at the end of a sapping cross country
season.
The third in the Finn Valley 5K road series drew close to
200 runners to Stranorlar last Friday night and Letterkenny
athlete Ivan Toner led them home in 16m 14s, just ahead of
Tir Chonail,s Paul Ward and the home club,s Paul McGlinchey.
24/7 Tri club,s Bronagh O Gara ran 19m 22s to have a six seconds
cushion on clubmate Margaret Kelly with the Gransha Paddys
Weekend winner,Teresa Doherty of Inishowen AC third on 19m
39s. Locals Peter Lilburn and Christy McMonagle once again
were prominent in their respective age categories, Peter warming
up for Dunboyne with a comfortable 20m 02s and Christy just
a second behind.
Dunboyne Success
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With over 900 finishers Sundays Dunboyne 4 miler also had
good quality as Mark Kenneally of Clonliffe Harriers swept
to a clear win in 18m 26s,ahead of Rahenys Richard Corcoran
18m 48s and third placed Thomas Fitzpatrick of Tallagh Ac
on 18m 55s. Newcastle Ac,s Kerry Harty posted a quick 21m
42s to take the female honours and while Clonliffe and Raheny
were well ahead in the four to score mens team race, the Spartans
scratch outfit did exceedingly well to grab third spot .
The locals are all at an early stage in their speed work and
all six lads in action will have benefitted big time from
the exposure to such high tempo racing.Greg Roberts was the
leading Spartan,ninth in 19m 48s, folowed by Declan Reed 17th
in 20m29s Aaron Doherty 20th in 20m 47s and Dermot Connolly
Connolly ran 23m 21s to complete the scoring quartet in 71st
spot. Peter Lilburn was,nt far behind and his impressive 23m58s
clocking gave him a facile victory in the M55 age categoty
as he stormed home in 79th place. Just back after damaging
his ribs, Oran McBride tested himself with an encouraging
24m 49 s run.
Queens 5K Preview
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Tomorrow nights Queens 5K road race will allow some more locals
to check out their road form and several are expected to travel
to Belfast for the 7pm start tomorrow. Heading the charge
should be the inform Connor Bradley who has impressed with
a classy Armagh 3K road win back in February and a quite astounding
8m 16s Indoor 3000metre clocking not long afterwards.
Bradley has made a significant come back after nearly four
years out of competitive action and will be among the favourites
tomorrow evening on a tight lap course which nevertheless
always seems to produce fast 5K times. The Spartan will hope
the opposition and the conditions will spur him to his first
sub 15m clocking and no doubt all the locals in action will
also be hoping for good runs.
Beyond the Queens race the distance steps up somewhat for
Saturdays Omagh Half Marathon which expects to go close to
2000 participants on its redesigned course. Many runners preparing
for the upcoming London and Belfast marathons will take in
Saturdays race as they check out their preparations for the
classic distance challange.
Bay Rd 5K
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Race one in the six strong Furey Insurances 5K Series is just
around the corner now,on Wednesday 20th April and the Bay
Rd circuit expects to attract 200 plus participants. The Athletics
NI 5K championships is the icing on the cake for the Bay Rd
race and entries will of course be taken from 6pm on race
night at event HQ at the UU Magee Sports Hall in the Northland
Rd Campus. However you can enter in advance by emailing your
name/club/age on race day to fudgelarge@gmail.com
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