Craughwell Handicap Chase

17 hardy souls turned up early Sunday morning to run the 3rd race in the Craughwell Handicap Chase 10k Series. Nice weather conditions early in the morning were replaced by some nasty showers shortly before the race started, with these easing to a steady drizzle by the time 8.30am arrived.

If the series had a prize for most dedicated runner, it would certainly go to Keith Comyn from Eagle AC in Co. Cork who travelled to Craughwell specially for the race, staying overnight because of the early start. Keith has recently taken up the sport and had run a few longer races in Munster in the past few weeks. He had not run a 10k race before this weekend and was specifically looking for a race over that distance. Consulting the country's premier race calendar on www.athenryac.com, Keith decided to use Craughwell for his inaugural 10k and ran a very respectable 48:39 over the distance. Well done Keith! The 'most dedicated runner' accolade could equally be awarded to either Bernie Kelly or Josephine Gardiner who both ran the Carramore 10k race in Mayo on Saturday evening and arose early to tackle the Craughwell 10k the following morning.

Top 3 places in the Craughwell 10k on this occasion went to three runners who were each making their debut in the 10k series - Triona Coppinger, Valerie Fogarty and Dervilla Darcy. Triona's handicap of 75 minutes was based on a recent 35 minute time for 3 miles - and boy did she blitz that time on Sunday, breaking the hour in an incredible 59:03 PB and winning the race in the process. Val and Dervilla, both new recruits to Craughwell AC, ran equally impressive races to take 2nd and 3rd place on the day and knocking chunks off their handicaps in PB times of 50:33 and 55:54. Fantastic running that augurs well for our Craughwell Women's team in road races over the summer and maybe in cross-country in the autumn!

Top three men on the day were Tony O'Callaghan, Tony Nevin and Noel Gorman who finished within 7 seconds of each other and all broke their target times by over 30 seconds. Noel Craughwell took advantage of the absence of some of the overall top 5 to finish as 4th man home and to move up from 10th place to 3rd place in the overall leadership.

Snapping at Noel's heels in both the race and in the leadership table, Darragh O'Brien ran a PB to go under 37 minutes for the first time, recording the fastest time of the day in 36:54. Mick Rice sporting a strapped ankle, ran the next fastest time of 37:35.

Results of Sunday were as follows:

As the final race of the series approaches, the overall lead in the men's race remains the same as 2 weeks ago, but Noel Craughwell has moved into third place. Any of the top 3 are still in with a chance of taking the overall men's prize. 

The women's table is a closer affair, with Kathleen Waters in the lead on 22 points but under pressure from a number of runners who could take top place with a strong final race.

The Craughwell 10k Series Perpetual Cup is up for grabs in the final race for fastest time in the Series. At present, Michael Tobin is in the lead with 36:49 from the first race but this looks very much under threat from the fast improving Darragh O'Brien who ran 36:54 on Sunday. Also in serious contention for the fastest time are Athenry's Mick Rice and Peter Delmer, both of whom have recorded faster times in the AAI 10K a few weeks ago but have been prevented by injury from repeating this in the Craughwell series. An injury free weekend for them in two weeks time will make the race for fastest time in 2 weeks time a very interesting battle.

The following is the fastest times in the series so far:-

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