What a beautiful fine day and what a thriller of a race we witnessed at the County Senior Cross Country Championships in Kilrane on Sunday with the team placings in the balance to the very end.

The snow had melted and the sun shone down  brilliantly on an excellent cross country course for the County Championships on Sunday.  A close team competition was anticipated with Kevin and Conaill out of action and Tom Hogan now running for Racing 795.  Add to that the return of Dominic Ryan to the SBR team and it was always going to be a tight race.

The 10K course consisted of five 2K laps. At the end of the first lap Dominic and Tom were running shoulder with our own Ted Flannelly in 3rd place. Tommy McIlwaine was 4th and Dave Barron 5th with Jim, Padraig, Farmer and Mick Jordan in good positions making up our first team. Lar was busy on the sideline adding up the scores and calculated that we were 5 points ahead at that stage.

Over the next 2 laps there was nothing to separate the two leaders with Tommy, Ted and Dave competing hard for 3rd to 5th positions. At the end of lap 2 we were 8 points ahead but after that the margin got tighter. After 4 laps Dominic had moved ahead of Tom with some 8 seconds to spare. Teamwise our lead according to Lar had dwindled to 2 points!

At the finish Dominic finished  a comfortable 1st in 32.48 with Tom in 2nd in 33.25. Tommy was 3rd in 34.16 with Dave Barron an excellent 4th in 34.40.  With Ted 5th, Padraig 7th, Jim 9th and Farmer and Mick J not far behind it was a strong team performance.

Tallyman Lar reckoned that we were a few points adrift of SBR at the finish but SBR were of the opinion that we had managed to stay ahead of them. With all the runners in there was an anxious wait while John Moore and John Joe checked and rechecked the scores. The final result was SBR 48, Slaney Olympic 50. The SBR lads may have had a slight edge in the running but our Lar is better at the sums!

Our second team took bronze lead home by Fergus. Brian Murphy came next followed by Mick  M and Bobby, who were inseparable for nearly the whole race,  Mick N, Paul and Billy. Well done to all and also to Michelle Doyle who was our sole representative in the women’s race. It was great also to see so many club members (including the very young Oisin Tyrrell who brought his parents along!) there to support the runners.

There are now lots more photos in the Gallery.