Rossa Hurley and Siobhan Eviston are among the winners at the Dublin Masters Cross Country Championships, while young multi-eventer O’Connor improves on her own record in Sheffield.

Rossa Hurley of Donore Harriers led home a record entry at the Dublin Masters Cross Country Championships held in mild conditions at the St Anne’s Park Raheny on Sunday. A total of 202 women and 292 men were in action.

In the men’s 6000m race, Hurley was part of a leading group on the opening lap of four with Shane O’Neill of Rathfarnham WSAF pushing the pace along with new master Kevin English of Tallaght AC.

On their heels were Michael McMahon, Des Kennedy and Ian Conroy, all from Raheny Shamrock, along with Sportsworld pair Gareth Murran and Karol Cronin.

Heading into the final lap, English had dropped off the pace but the race was still anyone’s. Coming out of the woods for the last time, Hurley took over in front and built up a seven second lead on O’Neill for victory in 20:58; O’Neill was second and first M45.

Finishing third was Karol Cronin, a former Dublin novice champion, with McMahon fourth and Murran out-sprinting Kennedy for fifth.

First M40 in 10th place was Paul Fleming of Rathfarnham WSAF. Category winners were Edwin Keville of Rathfarnham WSAF, M50; Gerry O’Connell of Marino Institute of Education M55, Tallaght’s Brendan Ryan M60, Barry Potts of Donore Harriers, M65, Raheny’s Liam Mulready M70 and Hugh Finlay of Blackrock AC M75.

Raheny Shamrock retained the M35 team title with 26 points; Sportsworld was second and Rathfarnham WSAF third. A total of 19 teams finished. Rathfarnham WSAF took team gold in the M50 category beating 12 other teams; Raheny and Clonliffe were second and third.

Track specialist Siobhan Eviston of Raheny Shamrock made her masters debut with victory in the women’s 3km race. Eviston had to call on all her 800m speed to hold off Noreen Brouder of Sportworld AC in the chase for the line winning in 11:45.

Brouder was first W40; third and second W35 was Laura McDonnell of Tallaght AC. A fighting fifth overall and first 50 for a second year was Annette Kealy of Raheny Shamrock.

In a competitive race for the W45 title, Donna Mahon of Rathfarnham WSAF held off Sinead Tighe of Brothers Pearse, with only a second in it. Other category winners were Tallaght’s Anne King, W55; Mary Butler of Blackrock AC W60 and Mary Lynch of Raheny Shamrock W65.

Raheny Shamrock beat defending champions Sportsworld by just four points in the W35 team competition with Rathfarnham WSAF third and 18 teams in action. Raheny also retained the W50 team title, with Blackrock AC second and Sportsworld third of the seven teams.

St Gerard’s AC’s Kate O’Connor broke the Irish senior women’s pentathlon record at the England Athletics Indoor Combined Events Championships in Sheffield on Sunday (January 6).

O’Connor, who won gold in the senior and U20 categories in Sheffield, has now broken the record on three occasions inside 12 months.

The 18 year-old’s efforts included a 5.98m long jump, 13.27m in the shot put, 9.14 in the hurdles and 1.74m in the high jump.

O’Connor finished with a 2:21.62 over 800m for a total of 4174 points, which added 24 points to the record she set last February.

The young multi-eventer is set to begin an athletics scholarship at the University of Texas next autumn.

Brian Maher of Kilkenny City Harriers won The Tom Walsh 10k in Limerick on Sunday in a new course record of 30:36. The previous record of 30:37 was held by Sean Hehir.

Second across the finish line was Limerick AC’s Colm Turner in 34:18, while Portlaoise AC’s Tom Lupton completed the top three men.

First woman was Leevale AC’s Carol Finn in 38:51 ahead of Limerick AC’s Hikka Kontro. Third was Sharon Cleene in 39:55.

At parkrun on Saturday, Willowfield Harriers’ Neill Weir ran 16:31 at the Belfast Victoria event to record the fastest men’s time across the island of Ireland, while North Down’s Katie Moore claimed the women’s top spot after running 18:20 at the same event.

The top 10 Irish parkrun times on Saturday can be found here.

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