Wintery conditions but top class action on display
Leah Lawler who led from the start leads out the runners at the start of the women’s race
There was another hugely competitive day of Cross Country Athletics when the Carlow Senior Men’s and Ladies Cross Country Championships took place in Tinryland on Sunday last.
While the event was initially in doubt due to the prevailing winter conditions in the preceding week, the course eventually passed a pre-race inspection on the Saturday afternoon.
In the end, the testing course was in relatively good condition on the day which allowed for two very exciting events with another large crowd present at the Tinryland venue.
In both events, there were again two very deserving winners with Padraig Webb of the host club Tinryland winning the Men’s title for the first time with Leah Lawlor regaining the Ladies title having previously been on top of the podium in 2023.
In the opening event of the day, the Senior Women’s 5km, the pre-race favourite Lawlor emerged into a dominant lead after the opening 1.6km lap followed by Aoibhin Webb of Tinryland who was making her debut in this race with a further group being led by the experienced SLOT athlete Louise Oprea and her clubmates Chloe O’Toole, sisters Claire O’Reilly and Brid Long with Tara Leigh of the home club also in close contention.
During the second circuit, Lawlor, who has had an excellent season on the roads and track, extended her leading margin to some 200m which she held on to the end to win in a time of 19 mins 47 which was one of the fastest in the recent history of this event. In second position some 54 seconds behind was Webb who performed solidly throughout the 5km having just recently won an All-Ireland Intermediate Football Title with the Bennekerry/Tinryland club. Taking the bronze medal was Oprea in 21 mins 20m with Claire O’Reilly 4th and Chloe O’Toole completing the winning SLOT quartet. In 6th position was Brid Long, just ahead of Tara Leigh who was another athlete running in this competition for the first time. With a number of additional athletes having registered for the coming season, hopes are high that Tinryland AC will have a stronger team to compete with their Carlow Town rivals next year.
SLOT once again took the team title for the Lambert Cup and though they were the only complete team, it is likely this will become a more competitive event in years to come.
In the Men’s 10km event, in the absence of defending champion Bobby Crowley, there was significant pre-race anticipation regarding the destination of the individual title and the Odlum Cup for the team event as both the defending champions Tinryland and 7 time consecutive winners LOT had a number of injuries and absentees in their ranks in the lead up to this year’s competition.
Among the favourites on the start line were the talented young LOT athletes, University of Limerick student McKenzie McIvor who was runner up in 2024, his teenage teammate Dylan Byrne along with Ian Molloy of SLOT and Tinryland athletes Padraig Webb, Mick Kelly, Tom Nolan and Pat Burke. Other former winners competing included Brian Kirwan and Tommy Payne.
From the starting gun, those present witnessed what was probably the most entertaining and enthralling event in the past decade with a breakaway group consisting of Byrne, McIvor and Webb leading the way from the 600m mark ahead of the chasing field of 20 athletes. Both the Tinryland and SLOT teams were packing nicely as the destination of the Odlum Cup was to be decided over the subsequent 10km.
There was nothing to separate the first three runners over the following two laps to the halfway mark at 5km by which point it became clear that the medals would be decided between Hacketstown native Byrne, McIvor and Webb who is a resident of Tinryland. Following closely behind was the very consistent Molloy in 4th position with 6 time winner Kirwan returning to form in 5th ahead of Tinryland athletes Burke, Nolan, Payne and Nolan with Leslie Graham and former Carlow footballer Paul Broderick completing the SLOT ranks.
In the 5th lap as the field headed towards the 8km mark, Byrne, who is a Leaving Certificate student in the Presentation College, made what appeared to be a decisive break where he opened a short gap ahead of Webb with McIvor a little further back and looked likely to end up in the bronze medal position. At the final bell, Byrne maintained his lead but not long into the last lap of the testing circuit, Webb who was cheered by the home supporters, produced the performance of his life to soon overhaul the leader and move into first position with 800m to go. In the end the Tinryland athlete charged his way to the finish lane to win his first title in a time of 35 mins 09, much to the delight of the local contingent. Not long afterward there was an extremely exciting sprint finish with McIvor retaining his silver medal in 35 mins 41 in what was effectively a photo finish with 3rd placed Byrne, whose father Alan also won the same medal as part of the SLOT squad in 1998.
There was a fine performance by Ian Molloy in 4th (a position he held for the entire race) with Brian Kirwan showing his class with a 5th place finish ahead of his teammates County Novice winner Broderick and another debutant in the impressive Leslie Graham in 7th who completed the winning SLOT team who regained the Odlum Cup on 27 pts. The Tinryland team was completed by former runner up Mick Kelly 8th, Pat Burke 9th, Tom Nolan 10th, 13 time winner Tommy Payne 11th and John Dillon 17th.
After the race, the worthy champion Webb mentioned his satisfaction with his winning run, having trained well in recent months in what was a great day for his family with his sister Aoibhin finishing 2nd in the Ladies event.
A Wildlife Biology graduate, Webb has worked in conservation and as a park ranger for some years and is a very respected figure in the local, regional environmental and national community.
On the back of Sunday’s win, Webb becomes only the 5th Tinryland athlete to win the Johnny Jones Cup in the 80 year history of this event following in the footsteps of multiple winning champions Denis Shannon, Tommy Payne, Pat Corcoran and Pat Byrne.
After the event, the Odlum and Lambert Cups were presented to the two winning teams from LOT and Tinryland along with the individual winners medals with the Johnny Jones Cup presented by Ollie Jones to Padraig Webb and the Kavanagh Cup by Tom Kavanagh to Leah Lawlor.
Great credit is due to all the officials who ensured the course was in pristine condition, impeccably marked and that all events on the timetable went off smoothly. Thanks must also go to Eamonn Byrne who once again carried out a fine job as MC with PL Curran providing audio equipment while Maria Dunne was the race starter on the day.
1st- Leah Lawlor (SLOT) 19.47 2nd- Aoibhin Webb (Tinryland) 20.41 3rd- Louise Oprea (SLOT) 21.20 4th- Clare O'Reilly (SLOT) 23.05 5th- Chloe O’Toole (SLOT) 23.45 6th- Brid Long (SLOT) 24.40 7th- Tara Leigh (Tinryland) 25.33 Team: 1st- SLOT (1, 3, 4, 5) - 13 pts
1st- Padraig Webb (Tinryland) 35.09 2nd- McKenzie McIvor (SLOT) 35.41 3rd- Dylan Byrne (SLOT) 35.42 4th- Ian Molloy (SLOT) 36.49 5th- Brian Kirwan (SLOT) 37.57 6th- Paul Broderick (SLOT) 38.11 7th- Leslie Graham (SLOT) 38.29 8th- Mick Kelly (Tinryland) 38.34 9th- Pat Burke (Tinryland) 38.38 10th- Tom Nolan (Tinryland) 38.53 11th- Tommy Payne (Tinryland) 39.21 12th- Joe Byrne (Individual) 39.35 13th- Arthur Hearns (SLOT) 40.13 14th- William Minchin (SLOT) 41.45 15th- Dylan McGrath (SLOT) 42.04 16th- Richard Ryan (SLOT) 42.05 17th- John Dillon (Tinryland) 42.26 18th- Alan Byrne (SLOT) 42.48 19th- Andy Dillon (SLOT) 47.14
1st- SLOT (2,3,4,5,6,7) – 27 pts 2nd- Tinryland (1,8,9,10,11,17) - 56 pts
