Moyne was the venue on the last Sunday in June for the first County Road Championships of the year and it was brilliant to see so many Club members running so well in the two races.
The women’s 3k race was first and her we had Hannah Steeds running a brilliant race from pillar to post to win the County Novice Women 3K title impressively in 10 mins 24 secs. Then we had Maire Claire McCarthy making her Club debut and she ran a brilliant race when winning the bronze medal in 10 mins 57 secs. Then we had Anne Marie Halpin also running a brilliant race when finishing 7th in 11 mins 27 secs and these three athletes combined to win the Inter Club Gold medals and retain the Cup for another year.
Then we had Elaine Horgan also running very well when finishing 8th in 11 mins 37secs. The we had two brilliant performances from two athletes making their debut for the Club and they were Jennifer Quinlan 11th (12:51) and
Marina Quinlan 12th (12:54). We also had good performances from Anna Byrne 14th (12:58), Sareen Walsh 15th (13:04), Debutants Radka Holastova 20th (13:35), Ciara Meehan 21st (13:40), Brid Hearne 22nd (13:41) and Stephanie Byrne 24th (13:51), brilliant performances and great to see all our debutants running so well.
In the Men’s race we had a record entry and it was great to see them all running so well, training during the pandemic went well. Here we had Evan Fitzgerald running a great race when coming home a very convincing and worthy Champion in 18 mins 13 secs, brilliant piece of front running. Then we had Paul Minogue also running a great race and pacing himself well to win the silver medal in 19 mins 21 secs. He also won the silver medal in last year’s race. Then we had both Nigel O Flaherty 5th (20:29) and Joey Feery 8th (21:13) running very well and along with Evan and Paul won the Team award and Cup, thus winning back the Cup last won in 2019 by the quartet of Joey Feery, Conor Ryan, Nigel O Flaherty and Anthony Bowen. Joey and Nigel were also on the 2018 victorious team while Nigel was on our 2017 successful team.
We also saw great performances from athletes like Eelco Beckers 27th (23:10), Jamie Byrne 31st (23:18), Donal Ryan 34th (23:240 , Michael Moloney 39th (23:48), Barry Horgan 41st (23:57), Anthony Power 43rd (23:59), Pat Coffey 46th (24:07), Bohus Jarabek 50th (24:38), Vincent McHugh 52nd (24:55), Alan O Shea 53rd( 25:01), Kenny Brett 54th (25:12), Sean O Dea 57th( 25:31), Michael McNamara 59th (25:59), Wojciech Ryzinski 63rd (26:20), David Lorigan 66th (26:35), Aidan Cremin 69th (27:22), Eamon English 73rd (28:49), Ben McGuire 74th (29:04), Donal Casey 75th (29:51), Liam Kiely 77th (30:47) and Ned O Brien 78th in 31:58.
We wish our clubmate, Aisling English a speedy recovery from her fall during the race.
For many of these athletes it was their first time competing at this level and they will have learned a lot from this experience as they look forward to Templemore on July 14th for the Novice B Road Championships.
Well done to Moyne AC for putting on two great promotions.