Curley claims another gold at National Cross Country

Athletics: Tullamore Harriers News, The Cross Country season continued last Sunday in Tymon Park in Dublin with the running of the National Intermediate and Masters Championships. On a lovely spring day hopes were high for the Harriers athletes over a fast but testing course. The Master Women"s race over 4000 metres saw defending champion Pauline Curley pitted against a strong field including old rivals Annette Kealy and Niamh O"Sullivan. Curley, however, was in supreme form and romped to victory by a margin of eleven seconds from Kealy with O"Sullivan a further twelve seconds adrift. Anne Carroll ran well to finish in 31st position as did Mary Daly in 47th. The scoring quartet for the team points was completed by Deirdre Lambe in 61st place. Mary Walsh ran strongly to finish 83rd and take second place in the V6 category. In the team competition Tullamore were unlucky in finishing just outside the medals in fourth place. Offaly were fifth in the Inter county result. Next race up was the Master Men run over 7000 metres and here hopes had been high for success. However, as we know sport doesn"t always work that way. Already shorn of the services of John Donegan and Declan Fahey, the Tullamore team, and more particularly Noel Kelly, were dealt a cruel blow when Noel, who was in the leading bunch at the time, was badly spiked and had to drop out. In a field of almost 200 runners, Adrian Curley had a good run to finish in 45th place. Next for the Harriers was John Harkin in 50th followed by Martin Carroll who finished 61st. Jody O"Reilly had a good run to come home in 63rd place. These four combined to give Tullamore 9th place in the team competition. Offaly placed 6th in the Inter County standings. In the over 50 team competition Tullamore narrowly missed out on the medals in finishing 4th team. Hopes were also high in the Intermediate Women race after a great season to date and once again they produced the goods. Liz Cuskelly continued her great run of success to dig deep and finish a great third place. Maire Triona Keane also ran well to finish 10th. Pauline Lambe had been sick coming up to the race and was a major doubt, but she didn"t want to miss this one and she put in a courageous run to finish in 14th place. Rose Marie Masterson had one of her best runs to date and finished 27th. When the points were added up for the team competitions, Tullamore were announced as the second team just eight points off the winners Sportsworld. Offaly also came second team. The Intermediate Men"s race over 10,000 metres concluded the day and again there was a big field. Barry Minnock was first Offaly man home in 5th place. Ferbane man Paul Buckley ran well to finish in 24th position. Mick Murphy ran a steady race to finish 82nd while Eddie Garry impressed in his first race for the club in finishing 92nd. Tullamore finished 13th club and Offaly were 7th county. Full Results Master Women 4000 metres. 1 Pauline Curley; 31 Anne Carroll 16.56; 47 Mary Daly 17.30; 61 Deirdre Lambe 18.14; 75 Martina Conlon 19.46; 83 Mary Walsh 20.36. Master Men 7000 Metres 45 Adrian Curley 23.56; 50 John Harkin 24.13; 61 Martin Carroll 24.28; 63 Jody O"Reilly 24.23; 77 Catch Grennan 24.57; 84 Declan Madden 25.10; 93 Johnny Feery 25.29; 109 John Todd 25.59; 144 Joe Wrafter 28.15; 175 Jim Langan 37.20. Intermediate Women 4000 metres 3 Liz Cuskelly 15.40; 10 Maura Triona Keane 16.08; 14 Pauline Lambe 16.20; 27 Rose Marie Masterson 17.07; 43 Georgina Touhey 18.02. Intermediate Men 10000 metres 5 Barry Minnock (Rathfarnham AC) 33.13; 24 Paul Buckley (Ferbane) 34.48; 82 Mick Murphy 38.23; 92 Eddie Garry 39.19; 103 John O"Connell 41.15; 105 Tony McCormack 41.20; 109 John Scanlon 43.07. AGM The Annual General Meeting will take place in the Harriers clubhouse on Monday February 23rd at 7.45pm. It is hoped that there will be a big turnout on the night and all members are welcome to attend. Fixtures February 22nd: Peter Devery Memorial Cross Country race in Emo at 10am. March 1st: AAI. National Senior and Junior Cross Country Championships in Santry, Dublin.