Crusaders take silver medals at Wicklow Way Relay
Wicklow Way Relay Team 2011
A great start to the mountain running season got better when the Crusaders team recorded their highest ever finish in the annual Wicklow Way Relay taking the silver medals behind a rampant Rathfarnham side who lowered the existing record for the 127km traverse to 7hrs3min13secs. Even with a club record finishing time of 7 hours 36 minutes and 13 seconds, the team car endured some nervous moments securing the more precious metal by only nine seconds to Boards AC.
Leg 1 finished with Richie Healy a strong second behind Rathfarnham’s Brian Furey. A few “out of club” recruits from other teams had been necessitated due to late injuries to Jason Kehoe and Tressan McCambridge. Ian Conroy, the first such recruit, from Raheny Shamrocks, put four minutes into Rathfarnham’s Kevin Bolger and set ex-Crusaders Maura Matthews (now Clonliffe) off in first position. Jason organised the team car throughout the day and gave the “Motley Cru” tremendous support from start to finish.
Rathfarnham’s Eilis Connery pulled Maura back but as Aoife Joyce embarked on leg 4, our team still held several minutes on a chasing pack of three. By the time she handed over to Tony Collins (Parnell), Aoife had set a new best for the leg and held on to a comfortable gap. Tony ran exactly to plan but a record-run by Colm Hill saw Boards team back eight minutes on the leg from Glendalough to Glenmalure. Des Kennedy restored calm with an amazing time on leg 6 besting even Rathfarnham’s Padraig MacCriostial.
It was up to team captain Rene Borg to keep the lead over the half-marathon distance leg 7 and midway through he kept the lead to third at six and a half minutes before losing ground on the hard climb to Tinahely. He handed over to Declan Horgan with just about three minutes to spare, too close for comfort.
The team car kept Declan appraised of the danger from behind where Boards’ Ian McGrath would run the fastest time of the day. As the kilometres passed the gap narrowed ominously but Declan stayed strong and was the hero of the day running the third fastest time of the day on leg 8 to secure the silver.
Deirdre Ni Chearbhaill, Sean Hasset, Diarmud O’Colmain, Dave Williams, Emma McCauley, Kevin O’Riordan, Emma Sokell, Mary Collins (fastest woman on leg 7) and Amidou Dembele ensured plentiful Crusaders representation on the day among the thirty teams.
The hill running squad has gone from strength to strength since the bronze medals won in 2008 and 2009 and today completed a remarkable seven days after Carrauntoohil. Next up is the European Trial next Saturday where we have team gold medals to defend and Richard Healy and Jason Kehoe (should he recover in time) will be expected to lead the line for us.
SILVER MEDAL TEAM 2011: Richie Healy, Ian Conroy, Maura Matthews, Aoife Joyce, Tony Collins, Des Kennedy, Rene Borg, Declan Horgan
Photos of the day to follow. Full results posted at IMRA