Tipperary Athletics: Clonmel AC win inaugural senior cross country relay event

The County Cross Country relays took place last Sunday in the Thurles Crokes complex, where athletes competed in good conditions.

This year the County Board decided to promote a Senior 4x 500m relay for athletes 16 years of age and older. This event attracted eight teams representing five clubs and proved an enormous success.

The pace was fast from the start and was still very close at the first changeover, then midway through this leg Thurles Crokes opened up a good lead and going out on the final leg they had a sizeable lead.

However, over the final leg, Conor Flaherty of Clonmel AC put in a powerful run that saw him cut into the big lead and then with 150m to go, he moved into the lead and went on to win in 16 mins 12 secs.
The winning Clonmel team consisted of Ruby Carroll, Gillian Hughes, Tadhg Quinn and Conor and they were crowned the inaugural champions of this event.

Then we had Thurles Crokes winning silver and great credit to them for putting in a tremendous effort. Their team consisted of Nula Fitzgibbon, Alex Crowley, Stephen Mawe and Cathy Dundon.

The battle for the bronze medals was decided on the final bend of the final leg with Moyne AC edging past Mooreabbey Milers. Their team consisted of Lisa Quinlan, Bernadette Spillane, Aaron Moore and Brendan Delaney.

For the record Thurles Crokes B team were 4th with Mooreabbey Milers 5th and Newport 6th.

County chairman, Owen Fanning, thanks Thurles Crokes for once again promoting a great day’s competition and he also thanks the clubs for supporting this inaugural championship event.

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Great performances at Abbotstown Cross Country

Abbottstown was the venue last Sunday for a series of Cross Country that included trials for the upcoming Home Countries Masters Cross Country Championships. Indeed, it was great to see County athletes competing in the series of races.

In the junior women’s race there were good performances from Muireann Duffy Clonmel AC 4th, Niamh Cunneen Nenagh Olympic 5th, Emma Murray Clonmel AC 13th and Laura Cooney Clonmel AC 14th.

The Junior Men’s race also saw good performances from the Nenagh Olympic duo of Luke Purcell 9th and Cian Hodgins 14th.

In the women’s race Dymphna Ryan ran a brilliant race when winning the over 40 category and her spot on the Irish Masters team for the upcoming Home Countries Cross Country Championships while Sharon Cantwell of Moyne was 39th and Sarah Whelan Clonmel Ac 46th.

In the men’s race Kevin Moore of Dundrum ran very well when finishing 19th, there was also good performances from William Hughes Thurles Crokes 23rd, Eugene O’Keeffe Carrick-on- Suir 77th, Tom Blackburn Mooreabbey Milers 80th and Willie O’Donoghue Mooreabbey Milers 90th.