Raheny Mid-Summer 5k (incorporating the Dublin Novice Road Championships), Sunday 17 June.
A record field of 300 runners took to the paths and trails of Dublin’s second largest park, St. Annes, Raheny, last Sunday for…short in-take of breath…the Raheny Mid-Summer 5k (incorporating the Dublin Novice Road Championships). Pre-race favourite, John Eves (DSD), lead the field home in 16:14, seconds ahead of unattached Colm O’Connell and Davy Byrne (Tallaght AC). Sportsworld’s Gavin Finlay came 6th overall in 16:40; Damian Kelly placed 14th in 17:00, Kevin Curran 26th in 18:12, Nigel Burke 33rd in a masterful 18:34 and newcomer Alan Dignam finished a respectable 55th in 19:23. In typical mid-summer style, flooding in the park required a slight alteration to the already circuitous 5k route, causing no doubt a few disgruntled Garmins and non-existent PBs!
After initial concern that we would be unable to field a team, in the end Sportsworld (Nigel, Damian, Kevin, Gavin) won silver in the Dublin Novice team event, behind a strong Tallaght AC team. In the Dublin Novice individual, Gavin won the men’s title, beating the Tallaght duo of David Fitzpatrick and Niall Coppinger into silver and bronze. Íde Nic Dhomhnaill (Donore Harriers) won the women’s title with her twin sister Sorcha second and Sharon Tighe (Tallaght AC) third.
Unfortunately no Sportsworld ladies were represented in the women’s field which saw Maria Dolan (RWSAF) take first place just ahead of Fionnuala Doherty (Clonliffe Harriers).
