Raheny was the place to be on
Sunday where Raheny Shamrocks hosted the National Road Relay
Championships in sunny but windy conditions.
This is the 6th year in a row this competition has been hosted by Raheny
and the competition was tougher than ever as Ireland finest road racing
talent converged on the course.
First into the fray were Tallaght’s Master Men’s Team led by Desie
Shorten who completed the first mile in 5.05 and he handed the baton to
Niall Coppinger for the two mile leg and indeed Coppinger made light
work of his task recording 5.05 and 5.19 splits before handing the baton
to Billy Murphy for the final mile in the relay and his time of 5.18 was
good enough to secure a very creditable sixth place for the team.
The best race of the day by far however was the Senior Men’s Relay with
a huge number of teams taking part. This race consisted of a 2 mile leg
followed by a 1 miler, three miler and completed with a final leg of two
miles.
Tomas Fitzpatrick got the club of to a blistering start when he took on
Irelands best over the first two miles. He opened up with a 4.48 mile
and ran the second mile in 4.51 to finish in 2nd place. Anthony Lieghio
was in no mood to relinquish the lead and he burnt the road with a
4.31mile to retain 2nd place. Davey Byrne had the “poisoned chalice”
with the 3 mile leg and he maintained second place overall after the
first mile which he completed in 5 minutes flat. His second mile was
hand timed at 5.15 and the nearest challenger Paul Fleming from
Rathfarnham AC was making ground. Davey responded with a 5.03 mile but
the Rathfarnham athlete responded well too and on the final change over
it was Rathfarnham in 3rd place with Clonliffe and Raheny in a clear
lead battling it out for 1st and 2nd place. Tallaght’s youngest member
of the squad, Peter Fitzsimons at just 16 years old took off in hot
pursuit of Rathfarnham’s Gearoid O Connor. At half way Fitzsimons had
posted a 5.11mile but the more experienced O Connor maintained the lead
all the way to the line and the gallant Tallaght squad had to settle for
a very proud 4th place. For the record Clonliffe won the race in a new
course record with Raheny in second, Rathfarnham in 3rd and Tallaght AC
in 4th.