Perfect day for town at All-Irelands
St Joseph's CBS' All-Ireland gold-winning team. Back (l to r) Cathal Khan, Conor Young, Tadhg Berkery, Carl Dunne, Jake Mc Donnell, Norbert Feeney; Front (l to r) Sean Mc Keever and Fergal Barnes.
Wednesday March 17 2010
IT was an unforgettable day for Drogheda at the Irish Schools Cross-Country finals at Cork IT on Saturday last as the town returned home with both individual and team gold. Aaron Hanlon won the Junior Boys title, and St Joseph's CBS completed what has been a magnificent season by winning the senior team title for the first time in their history.
The Joeys' great Drogheda rivals St Mary's DS had earlier taken silver medals, and another Drogheda man, Simon Ryan – running for Tallaght IT – rounded the championships off in style by sweeping to bronze in the Men's Universities race.
In claiming Junior gold, Aaron, running in the colours of St Mary's DS, thus joins an exclusive list of County Louth runners – Keith Kelly, Jillian Brennan and Gary O'Hanlon – who have won national cross-country titles.
A member of Dunleer AC, Aaron is only the second athlete from the club to win the Junior title since 1969.
For St Joseph's this Senior triumph was a culmination of a lot of hard effort over several seasons and the winning of a second schools title in three years – they won the Junior in 2007 – was proof of the pedigree of one of the finest teams to emerge from this area in recent times.
The annexing of the senior title cements the place their place in the alltime champions in the Newfoundwell annals of sport.
The 6km course was flat, dry and running very fast, and the first of the four laps saw pre-race favourites Douglas (Munster) holding a slight lead, with four athletes in the top 30.
However, Carl Dunne (a pre-race doubt with a head cold) and Jake McDonnell were up in the leading 10 for St Joseph's. Norbert Feeney, Tadhg Berkery and Fergal Barnes were just outside the top 40 in the field of more than a hundred.
The pendulum swung the Joeys' way as Feeney produced a great second lap, bringing his teammates into contention, and as the third lap began the Joeys held a narrow lead, with Sean Mc Keever, Conor Young, and Cathal Khan doing trojan work down the field.
Carl Dunne was in inspirational form, moving from 8th to 7th to 6th by 5000m, while Jake kept his composure in 17th place and Feeney, Berkery and team captain Barnes all stayed in the top 40.
With a commanding but not unassailable lead, it needed a final 1,000m of relentless courage to secure the most coveted trophy in Irish schools athletics.
There was no collapse in those final 1000m; Dunne finished off in 5th, a truly remarkable effort at his first season in this grade and leading his team in the best possible fashion. Mc Donnell (23rd) was winning his second national title in six days, having starred for Raheny juniors the previous Sunday. Berkery (41st) and Feeney (43rd) sealed the deal with a very gutsy final burst.
It took a little while before the results were processed, but when the electronic scoreboard flashed 1st St Joseph's CBS 113, it set a great tide of celebration in train.
- Marcus CAVAROLI
