Dooney powers home as Shamrocks Reign Supreme

Posted By on 24/04/2017

Conor Dooney blasted down Wades avenue to secure the Irish Life Health National Road Relay in a dramatic and titanic victory on Sunday afternoon.

The road relay championships returned to Raheny for the 16th consecutive year and turned into a battle between the hosts and Donore Harriers.

The Raheny senior men had entered a near identical team to the one which won the All Ireland senior cross country title in November with national indoor 800 metre champion Kieran Kelly replacing Mick Clohisey.

Mark Kirwan led the team out, however Mark didn’t look comfortable at all after the first of his two laps having crossed the finish line in the chasing pack and grimacing badly after lap one.

Unknown to the supporters on Wades Avenue, Kirwan had fallen badly on lap one and eventually was revealed to have broken his collar bone.

Undeterred Kirwan battled through the pain barrier to finish fourth clocking 9:36 for his two lap first leg and hand over to Kieran Kelly.

Kelly exploded from the handover and quickly gobbled up the metres to DSD, Clonliffe and Liffey Valley posting an explosive four minutes 20 second leg to hand over to Kevin Dooney.

Dooney who is now moving up to the distances was sent on his way into the three lap leg and what equates to close to 5K with a lead having been built by Kelly.

Donore at this stage where 19 seconds behind, however had produced their trump card in John Travers a man who has qualified for two European Indoor 3,000 metre finals.

Wily Travers and made up the ground on Dooney junior coming into the final lap of three, however Dooney didn’t wilt and made life difficult for the Donore man handing over to brother Conor just strides behind Eric Keogh.

Keogh Donore’s bright young thing was quickly reined in by Conor Dooney with the elder Dooney leading by merely a metre as bell sounded.

Dooney powered through the final mile and was welcomed to the bottom of All Saints Road by an incessant roar. The race was far from over however as Dooney saw the finish line on Wades Avenue.

Keogh kicked but Dooney responded, Keogh dug in again but it was Dooney and Raheny’s day as Conor Dooney threw his hands alfot to see Raheny Shamrock retain the senior men’s title and lift the championship for the eighth time.

While the days final race was euphoric, the day had started with disappointment for the master women’s 35’s, the A team missing out on a medal in the cruellest of positions; fourth.

Sarah Quigley, Annette Kealy and Jenny Mulry where just shy of the podium as Letterkenny set a new course record of 22 minutes 32 seconds for gold.

The Women’s B team of Elaine O’Hagan, Lorraine Byrne and Anne-Marie Woods finished in 11th place with the C team of Nicola Mooney, Caitriona Costello and Mary Walsh finished 16th in the most competitive masters women’s race seen in Raheny.

Hats off also to Elaine O’Hagan and Nicola Mooney who both continued after heavy and nasty falls on the opening lap.

Despair quickly turned to joy though as running in the same race the master women’s 50 team landed gold with Nora Byrne finishing the glory leg off some 22 seconds clear of Dundrum South Dublin with Adrienne Atkins and Orla Gormley having laid the ground work for victory.

The women’s over 50 B team of Mary Purdue Smyth, Una Cherry and Bernie Manley finished a very credible fifth.

The good times continued to roll into the day’s second race as the master men’s 35 team saw Ian Conroy and Michael McMahon begin a battle with Donegal outfit Finn Valley.

John Dunne smashed the three second deficit in the final one mile leg to claim the national masters 35 title bringing the team home three seconds clear of Finn Valley.

The B team of Dave Kirwin, Ciaran McCarthy and Will Walsh took seventh place as the C team of Rory O’Sullivan, Brian Leahy and Ian McConkey finished 10th and the D team of Niall Power, Terry Keogh and Wesley Grant finished 15th of 25 finishing teams.

The over 50 men’s team were left disappointed as Cork’s St. Finbarr’s finally got the better of them by eight seconds to claim gold.

It’s a strange day when Damien Martin, Mick Traynor and Dave Woods are disappointed to climb the podium, however they will be back to upgrade their silver lining.

The B Team of Gabriel Byrne, Tom Loftus and David O’Hara finished in eighth place with the C team of Dave Feeney, Martin Kelly and Des Lyons finished 12th.

The young senior women’s team didn’t have things all their own way in an extremely competitive championship against a number of senior internationals.

The A team made up of all junior athletes let no one down as they finished in a highly credible tenth place, the team of Lucy Barrett, Niamh Corry and Ailish Murtagh will no doubt be back again stronger next year.

The B Team of Orla Manley, Karen Crossan and Eoivann McGoldrick finished again with pride in 14th place. Fitness and speed will come in the summer.

The Men’s senior A team landed gold dramatically but competition for this team is extremely hot with the B team of Feidhlim Kelly, Daniel Scully, Donal Foley and Colm Delaney finishing 15th just 90 seconds off the top 10.

In the end all that was left was for Athletics Ireland president Georgina Drumm to present the Paddy Boland trophy to Orla Gormley.

Gormley accepting the trophy confirming Raheny Shamrock as the best club in the Championship for the second year running.

Congratulations to every Raheny athlete who ran, you represented your club and Raheny with great pride.

It is very special to host a national championship, to win it makes it all worthwhile.

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