Leinster 6k Road Race Championships Novice and Masters, Gowran Co. Kilkenny

My last race report, a mere 4 weeks ago on Easter Monday at Raheny described excessively cold, wet and windy conditions for the race. Fast forward to May Bank Holiday and conditions were positively hot, dry and calm. God, is there any ideal weather conditions for a race I ask myself?

What a great days racing for the club though. Best summed up I think in the words of one of the organisers to Emily, during the presentation ceremony, “Ye lot cleaned up here today”.

May Bank Holiday Monday means one thing. The trip to Gowran, for the annual, round and
round the village we run. 5 of our Ladies and 19 of our men together with Emily and Myles took the trip South to compete for the club in the Leinster Masters and Novice Competitions.
Liam Lenehan and Peter Knaggs had educated us thru ‘whats app’ that apparently 90 000 souls were buried in the adjacent restored abbey grounds. Despite the hot conditions endured by the 23, thankfully we won’t be adding to that number anytime soon.

First to race for Sportsworld over 4 laps or 6k were the Mens Masters. Despite great efforts
from our M35 team led home by Gavin Finlay back from the U.S, they were narrowly beaten
into 4 th place in what was a very competitive and keenly contested race.
Our O50s team were to fair 1 place better collecting bronze, led home once again by Noel Tobin.
Congratulations to Liam Lenehan for picking up bronze in the o55 category. Especially sweet for Liam, doing the business on his home turf. Well done.

Like the weather, the afternoon was to get better as the club pulled off a great double, winning both Ladies and Mens Novice team gold. Special mention to Maria Jones and Ciara Brady claiming silver and bronze respectively in the individual category, to go with both Club and County gold medals. 3 medals is certainly a fine days work.

Not to be outdone by the Ladies, the Mens team led home by Stephen O Donnell who ran an
incredible 4 th lap in making up 3 places also brought home the gold to bring the days racing to an end.

In addition to medals mentioned above our athletes collected 4 County Gold and 9 County Silver to add to the haul.

Well done to all who competed in Gowran. Be sure to mark it in the diary for 2019.

Special thanks to Emily & Myles for their support on the day.

Results: