Celtic DCH

The curtain came down on a busy weekend of cross country running on both sides of the Atlantic for our club at this exciting new course today. The event excellently hosted and organised by Tallaght AC was held on a disused golf course with plenty of undulation, muddy patches following recent rain in addition to stretches of good running. Something for everyone you might say.

Our under 19 womens team of Cliodhna, Claire and Summercombined to take 3rd team. Christopher finished an excellent 13th in the boys section while Alex, making his DCH debut was came home in 15th place in the junior men’s race.

Having split the squad in order to race in the Leinster Championships the previous day the pressure was on the Senior Women to deliver against a strong field. Jodie and Faye led the group for lap and a half with Cliona in close proximity and Alison operating just outside the top ten. Eimear and Aoife by agreement maintained places in the early 20’s.

Heading into the final lap Faye had moved into third ahead of Jodie. Cliona was holding 5th/6th under pressure and Alison having a fine run was gaining all the while. Eimear and Aoife made steady progress and were just outside the top 20 at this stage.

At the finish Faye came in 3rd closely followed by Jodie in 4th, Alison running a storming finish finished 6th with Cliona 7th. Eimear worked her way into the top 20 and Aoife, who sacrificed a run in the Leinster’s the previous day to support the team gain a couple of places more. Full results here; https://www.myrunresults.com/race-results/all.

With a low total of 20 points we retained the Jim McNamara Trophy, struck in honour of the late Olympian and coach.

There are nine major cross country championships on offer each season, three novice, three intermediate and three seniors. We have won the first 4 but the sterner test has yet to come.

To round off the day we witnessed a fantastic run by Pierre in the men’s senior section. Always in the first four Pierre produced a magnificent final lap to finish second and claim the individual silver medal. This is the first men’s medal won by a DCH athlete at these championships since Roy Dooney in 1989.

So far so good.

Competition Update

Another great weekend of racing from the club’s perspective with two senior team titles!! (Memories of the good old days about 30 + years ago, when this was a common occurrence). Well done, Ladies!

On Saturday at the Leinster Senior’s club championships in the Mountain View Golf Club in Ballyhale, Co Kilkenny, the Ladies team romped to our 3^rd team title of the current season! Claire led the team home in 7^th from Aislinn (10^th), Sinead (11^th), Sorcha (debut in blue with only one shoe, in14^th), Ellen (17^th), Christelle (30^th), Aoife C (32^nd), Niamh (34^th) and Aoife D (43^rd). DCH with 42 points, led home Tullamore Harriers in 2^nd with 57 points and Dunboyne 3^rd with 87 points.

At the Scottish Short Course championships in Kirkcaldy on Saturday, Niamh Carr (20th overall in 13.50) got the better of her sister Aoife (28^th in 13.58) – two excellent runs at the National Seniors!

Also, on Saturday at the English National XC Relays in Berry Hill Park, Mansfield, Lucy led the Charnwood B team to 20^th overall (from 139 finishing teams).

On Sunday at the Dublin Senior XC championships in City West Dublin, the ladies in blue retained the Jim McNamara Team Cup with Faye (3^rd), Jodie (4^th), Alison (6^th), Cliona (7^th), Eimear (19^th) and Aoife (24^th) – a magnificent team performance with great packing up front! DCH with 20 points were convincing team winners from DSD in 2^nd with 37 points and Raheny Shamrocks 3^rd with 42 points – our 4^th team senior team title of the season! All these performances augurs well for the National Seniors!

In addition to these great runs over the weekend, the DCH junior U19 ladies team placed 3^rd behind MSB and DSD with Cliodhna 5^th, Clair 12^th and Summer 16^th.

In the Junior Men’s race, Alex finished an excellent 15^th on his DCH debut with Christopher a few places back in 20^th. In the Senior Men’s race over 10km, Pierre outsprinted Emmet Jennings (DSD) to finish an excellent 2^nd overall behind the winner Efrem Gidey (Clonliffe).

In the US, Ailish Hawkins finished 2^nd over 3 miles at the Marmonte Finals in Agoura, California – with a time of 17.33 for the distance!  

Training Update

Wednesday’s nights weekly circuits session continues at the Cabra Parkside Community Centre – starting at 7.30pm sharp (2 mile warm up and cool down recommended).

This week’s training continues with 2 weekly sessions – Tuesday & Friday OR Saturday. We train as per normal at TUD on Tuesday, followed by the Universities Relays in Maynooth on Friday for some of our University based athletes and a regular tempo reps session on Saturday morning from DFS (to start at 10.30am at latest). After this session, we WILL MEET as a group at the HITW for a quick meeting to finalise plans for the National Seniors XC championships in Rosapenna, Donegal on Nov 20^th

Wk 16 (Nov 7/13): Easy running 3 days, one longer run at talking pace on Sunday, 1 x repetitions session on Tuesday, 1 x tempo run at LT pace / race pace + 2 x personal S&C sessions + ONE COMPLETE REST DAY [Sessions: Tuesday & Saturday] Please check team email for session details.      

Dublin uneven age cross country was held over a tough but interesting course in Citywest today. First into action were Juliette, Rion andAoife in the under 11 race. Juliette ran an outstanding race finishing 7th, Rion and Aoife also ran great over the 1500m distance for the first time. Ellen was very disappointed to miss the race as she was sick.
Our under 13 girls had high expectations and were rewarded with a 2nd place team medal , led in with a superb 2nd place for Jessica. Amelia ran herself to a standstill finishing 12th. Pearl was next in with a great run and close behind was Lelia. The two Saoirses, Caroline and Freya battled for every place and all helped win that team silver. Girls , you all should be so proud!!
Daire and Tom were competitive all the way in the boys under 13 and are learning from every race , great running lads.
Goda ran a smart race under 15 over 3500m and finished strongly in 2nd place overall. Hugh ran up an age group in the boys under 15 and stuck in very well in his first 3500m !
In the under 19 girls Cliodhna was up an age group but finished a very good 4th , with Clare 12th and Summer not far behind finished 3rd team overall. Christopher ran a fine race finishing 13th in the 6k under 19.

Our women won the team event in the senior race with Jodie, Faye, Alison, Cliona, Emer and Aoife on the team. Pierre was an impressive 2nd in the senior mens race.
Big shout out to our 2nd womens team which won the Leinster senior cross country in Ballyhale yesterday. Great running from Clare, Aislinn, Sinead, Ellen, Sorcha, Christelle, Aoife C, Aoife D, Niamh. What a weekend for the club!!

We travelled back to Ballyhale today which we had visited last year for the Leinster Novice Championships. Despite the fact that this idyllic area, with the Welch Mountains rising to the west is approx 150Km near the Equator than Dublin we certainly didn’t expect the near tropical conditions we encountered there.

The now disused but well maintained Mountain View Golf Club venue provided a real cross country challenge with some tough hills and tufty underfoot sod but there was a complete absence of mud despite recent heavy rain. There were three laps of the course to negotiate in addition to the start and finish straights.

The smallish field of 46 contained a number of excellent athletes, some of whom will challenge for places on the Irish team for the forthcoming European Cross Country Championships, scheduled for Turin next month. We took astrategic decision to enter the Leinster’s even though the Dublin’s were on the following day. This was in order to provide as many of our athlete as possible meaningful competitive opportunities in advance of the National Championships later in the month. Our athletes were somewhat off the pace on the first lap, but purposefully so with Claire around 12th, and Aislinn and Sinead not far behind. Sorcha, making her competitive debut for DCH, was comfortable and coming through the field nicely but she unfortunately lost a shoe which hinderer her further progress. Ellen was placed beautifully just outside the top 20, with Christelle, Aoife Corr, Niamh Donnelly and Aoife Donaghy fighting hard to gain places. After the second lap the field had settled down with some athletes paying the price for early extravagance. Our entire team gained ground going into the final lap with Claire now inside the top 10, Aislinn and Sinead(who ran despite having a cold and sore foot) were just outside and Sorcha running well despite her Cinderella state holding a mid-teens position. Ellen worked her way into the top twenty while Christelle, Aoife Corr and Niamh diced in the early 30s with Aoife Donaghy defending her position within the top 40.In the end we ran out comfortable team title winners with 42 points, Claire in addition to being 1st under 23 also scored on the Dublin County Team.

To see full results click on https://www.myrunresults.com/events/leinster_senior_xc_championships/4604/results

The club history shows that we have not won this title since 1992-results below- when the cross country season was arranged with pre-Christmas and after Christmas championships in equal number. DCH sometimes used these Leinster Championships as trials for the European Clubs Cross Championships in the past and who knows maybe history will repeat itself in the near future.

WOMENS EASTERN REGION SENIOR INTER CLUB CROSS COUNTRY CHAMPIONSHIPS-

1ST  TEAM 16 POINTS

Ursula Noctor 1st

Catherine Smith 4th

Frances Murphy 5th

Louise Cavanagh 6th

Olivia Clinton 15th

Ailish Smyth 16th

Eithne Kenny 21st

So far so good!

Sat 5th Nov HITW sprints group and anyone who’s free (and not racing tomorrow) meet at 10.15.

Sun 6th Nov HITW at 11 sprints group and older middle distance group. No training today for anyone born 2009 or younger.

Those racing in Citywest please check the timetable ( posted earlier ) and check the directions carefully. New venue to all so please give plenty of time to get there stress free. Be on the road 90 mins before scheduled race time . Meet at the club flag. Wellie day for spectators and bring bin bags for mucky shoes and wellies to save car cleaning! Best of luck to all.

More updates Sunday night.

Maps for Sunday. Please study carefully and follow the stewards directions. Wellies needed as underfoot conditions are expected to be soggy.