Dymphna Ryan completes her handful of Tipperary senior cross-country titles

Cashel was the venue last Sunday for the County Senior Cross Country Championships which were hosted by Dundrum AC. Dry and mild conditions greeted the athletes as they descended on the venue.
The women’s race over 6k consisted of three laps over a testing but a very good cross country course, where the underfoot was mainly firm.

Right from the start, the defending champion, Dymphna Ryan of Dundrum AC made her intentions known. Going into the lead inside the first 200m, she put on a powerful display of front running to make every step a winning one and came home a very worthy and convincing champion in 25 minutes 17 seconds.

This was Dymphna’s fifth Senior Cross Country title as well as finishing runner-up twice.

Then we had her clubmate and a native of Cashel, Linda Grogan (26:58) winning the silver medal, having just returned after a lengthy layoff due to injury. She was made to battle all the way by another athlete making a welcome return to competition, Madeline Loughnane (27:11), who was second for most of the race.

Looking back over the County Senior Cross Country records, these three talented athletes have amassed 14 Senior titles between them, definitely a talented trio.

For the record Eileen Ely of Thurles Crokes was 4th (27:30), Aoife Courtney (Mooreabbey Milers) 5th (27:35) and Mary Louise Ryan (Mooreabbey Milers) 6th (28:13).

In the team event with three to score we had three clubs with two athletes in the top six, so all eyes were on the rest of the athletes as they came into view, with Karen Coughlan of Dundrum AC running on very familiar ground finishing 7th and thus ensuring that the Sureprint Cup resided in Dundrum for another year, indeed they were achieving a four in a row. The silver medals were won by the Thurles Crokes team that also included Martina Ryan 18th (33:34). The bronze medals saw Clonmel pip Mooreabbey Milers by just one point. Their team was Elaine Horgan 8th (29:08), Sarah Whelan 9th (29:32) and Anne Marie Halpin 10th (29:52).

There was a B Section in this event for clubs who fielded a team in the A Section. Here the host Club again were the ‘Golden Girls’ with their team of Mary Keane, Mairead Julian and Emily Leahy who was winning her first County Senior medal. The silver medals were won by the Clonmel team of Michelle Doherty, Jennifer and Marina Quinlan.