COLM O'Connell finished 11th in the All-Ireland Novice cross country championships in Adamstown, County Wexford on Sunday. He was a scoring member of the Dublin squad which won the silver medal in the team event. John Clarke (141st) and Alan Foley (152nd) also competed.

Meanwhile, in the Clonakilty marathon on Saturday Rory Mooney finished 6th in 2.39.25; Dave Brady clocked 4.04.35 while Dave O'Brien finished with a time of 4.52.19. In the half marathon Helen Carr ran 1.44.14 while on their debuts over the 13.1m distance Keith Moynes and Denise Kelleher ran 1.48.49 and 2.15.56 respectively.

* Don't forget annual Christmas party and presentation of the Athlete of the Year awards, Thursday night, December 13 at 8pm in Raheny GAA Club.

DAVID Rooney finished a credible 38th on his European senior cross country debut on a snow covered course near Budapest this afternoon.

Italian Andrea Lalli was a runaway winner of the 10,000m race in 30.01. Rooney posted a time of 31.22 and was the third scorer on the Irish team which finished 7th. Brendan O'Neill was 22nd while Joe Sweeney finished 27th.

But the day belonged to the women's senior team. Fionnuala Britton became the first athlete in the history of the competition to retain the individual title but the icing on the cake came when the team took the gold medal. The other three scorers were Linda Byrne 8th; Ava Hutchinson 20th and Lizzie Lee 23rd. The other two Irish girls, Sarah McCormack was 36th while Sara Treacy was 42nd.

It was incredibly tight with Ireland and France finishing on 52 points each with Ireland took a historic gold on countback. Warmest congratulations to all involved. 

CLUB athletes dominated today's AWARE 10km road race in the Phoenix Park. Mick Clohisey was first across the line in 31.07; followed by Cillian O'Leary in 32.25 while Ian Conroy took third place in 32.52. Fiona Roche, who was unlucky not to be selected to run for Ireland at the European Cross country championships in Budapest tomorrow, was 13th overall and easily won the women's title in 34.59. Other club runners who competed included Seamus Rooney  39.09, Vanesse Fenton 42.39 and Connor Jennings 45.48.

Meanwhile, in the Malahide Castle 5km Parkrun Karl Meehan was the club's first finisher taking third place in 18.02. John Freir was 17th in 19.45 and first O45. Sean McGoldrick was 20th in 20.07; David O'Hara 24th in 20.33 and Helen O'Connor was a second of being the first women home with a time of 21.48 in the icy conditions.

* Conor Dwyer was the club's first finisher in today's (Sunday) BHAA 5km Cross country race in Marley Park. He posted a time of 17.56 to take 13th place; Brian Kelly was 18th in 18.19 and second O 45 while Dave Gargan was 20th in 18.24.   Other club finishers were Greg Fitzsimons 20.41; Jim Keogh 21.34; Anne Marie Gargan 23.37; Dave Brady 25.14 and Ciaran McGrath 30.53

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