Tallaght AC athletes were
back on the podium this weekend at the AXA Raheny 5 Mile Road Race. This
prestigious race attracted a record entry of over 2000 athletes from the
32 counties.
First on the podium was 16
years old Peter Fitzsimons who stormed home in 35th place
overall and in first place in the Junior Male category with a superb
personal best time of 27.21.
Aoibheann Tierney made her
debut over 5 miles and she ran a super race to take second place in
Junior Ladies Category.
Dave Byrne made the podium as
Tallaght’s top senior finisher in 9th place and with Keith
Sherlock and Nilton Demorais also running brilliantly the Senior Mens
team scooped 3rd place in the Team category. James Crowley,
Peter Fitzsimons and Luke Coleman also made the podium to accept their 6th
place team prizes.
Niall Coppinger took 3rd
place in the O/45 Category and Desie Shorten took first place in the
O/50 category and with Billy Murphy also running well this trio took 2nd
place in the Masters Team Category.
Christy Reilly, Martin
Haddock, Garry Clarke, Vivian O Hanlon , Ray Fitzsimons, Terry Fayne and
Pat Kelly also finished well up the field .
Laura Mc Donnell lead the
Clubs ladies home with Deirdre Pitts, Jacqui Boyle, Aileen Connolly and
Niamh Oman close behind. Liz Conroy backed up her recent Cross Country
success to win 1st place in the O/55 Category and Bernie
Furley and Bronagh o Hanlon made a welcome return to the road – racing
scene. The Clubs ladies team also featured quite a few athletes making
their debut over this distance and Janice Mahon led this group home with
Michelle Fitzpatrick, Patricia Clarke, Marissa Carton, and Mary Jenner
all running well and there will be even better to come this hard working
ladies team.
The clubs youngest
competitors also put their best foot forward with Sean Fitzsimons
breaking 40 minutes for the 5 miler and Rosin O Hanlon lined up with
over at 100 athletes in the 1 mile event and she took 5th
place overall.
Last Thursday the Club were also well represented at the Kit Kat West
Leinster Schools Cross Country at the Phoenix Park and Aoibheann Tierney
stole the show winning the Intermediate Girls race in some style with
her clubmate Jade Corcoran taking 3rd place. Peter Fitzsimons
continued his rich vein of form with 3rd place in a very
competitive Intermediate Boys event with Brian Connolly in 5th.
Anthony Lieghio was 3rd
in the Senior Boys race with Robert Fitzsimons in 5th and
Luke Coleman in 10th. All of these athletes achieved
qualification for the Leinster Schools Championships that are being
staged at DCU, Glasnevin next week.
On Saturday Tallaght sent a
4x200M Senior Mens Relay squad to the National Indoor Relay
Championships in Nenagh and the squad returned home with the bronze
medal. Well done to John Kelly, Ger Purcell, Sean Bolger and Sherif
Oyebanji.
Over in the States Tallaght
AC’s Eoin Dunne ran a fine race to take 6th place in the
Health Alliance Classic 3000M at the University of
Illinois Armory. Eoins time was 8:52.63 and augurs well for the coming
season.