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Aoife Joyce (left, No. 19) picks her way through the field on her way to an individual bronze medal in the 2010 Dublin Novices Cross-Country. (Photograph: racepix.com)

The Crusaders Novice teams put in a fine performance in the Dublin Novice Championships under blue sky of the Phoenix Park to start of the cross country season.  While the blue skies may not continue, the improvement of the cross country scene within the club looks set to build on the advancements made over the last few years.

Pride of place goes to the women’s team finish second and picking up their first cross country medals in over 40 years.  The team was led home by Aoife Joyce picking up an individual medal in third.  Three athletes running their first cross country race for the club made up the other scoring members, Mary Horgan, Natalya Coyle and Catherine Thorton in 10th, 11th and 14th respectively.  Crusaders’ men fielded two teams, the only club to do so, with one team finishing in 6th and the other 12th.  They were led home by Rob Cross in 16th with Karl Fitzmaurice, Jason Kehoe finishing less than 20 seconds behind, in 20th and 23rd respectively. 

The most encouraging aspect was the number of athletes turning out for their first run in a Crusaders singlet.  In addition to Mary, Natalya and Catherine, it was also debut racing for Crusaders in cross country for Lorraine O’Dwyer, Deirdre Hogan and Aoife Quigley.  On the men’s side, Keiran O’Loughlin finished inside the top 50, followed close behind by Richard Doyle, Jonny Cummins, Shane Gill, David Collins, Christian Neilson, all in their first run in the Crusaders singlet.  All are eager to pull on the Crusaders singlet again and it looks like the immanent deterioration of the underfoot cross country conditions won’t dampen the Crusaders cross country renaissance.