Mountain running season starts
Jason Kehoe in Kerry mountains.
The mountain running season started with a large number of new and established Crusaders athletes taking part in both the opening fixture of the Leinster league and Irish Championships. First up was the opening leg of the Leinster championship at Bray Head. While opening leg may be over a shorter distance, the climbs are some of the steepest of the season. First Crusaders athlete home was Jonathan Healy in 22nd followed home by Oran Murphy in 32nd, while Aoife Joyce was second female home. Other members of “the Cru” in action were Cormac O’Ceallaigh, Rosin McDonnell, Diarmuid O’Colmain (1st M60), Ken Cowley, Claire Glanville, Niamh O’Ceallaigh and Olive Marshall.
The second part of the Leinster League, at Howth, saw a number of athletes racing for Crusaders for the first time and other more established members returning to competition. Amidou Dembele in his first race for Crusaders finished 9th followed home. Long time Crusaders athlete, Emma Sokell made a return to competition finishing 3rd in the F40 division. Other Crusaders in action were Cathal Lally, Eva Fairmaner, Kevin O’Riordan, Sean Burke and Claire Glanville.
In the opening leg of Irish Championship Jason Kehoe returned to Croagh Patrick to make amends for last year disaster, where a heavy fall caused him to limp across the line after being helped down off the mountain with a badly injured quad. This year he set off determined to set things right and show what he is capable of. The race from the sea up to the summit of Croagh Patrick and back took place was hardened by the warm weather. Jason kept in sight of the two leaders throughout the climb, reaching the summit in 3rd place. On the descent he used his downhill skills to good effect to move past uphill specialist, Robert Malseed who reached the summit first. However, he failed to overturn the lead Brian Furey of Rathfarnham had at the summit and finished 2nd overall. This is Jason’s highest position in an Irish Championship race, a great start to his season. The Crusaders team of Jason, Sean Burke and Diarmuid O’Colmain took second place.