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28 November, 2009

2000 Knockree Race
Report by Douglas Barry
DSD junior Peter Dalton led a youthful assault on the new Knockree race route with a clearcut victory over Longford junior Kevin Smith. Knockree - it means the Hill of the King in Irish - is the mountain separating the upper Glencree valley from the lower part, and, at its summit, Dalton had a comfortable margin over John Brennan and Jimmy Synnott. As a result, the 17 year old Dalton had time to linger on the views of the Co. Wicklow valley, as he descended.
His fellow junior Kevin Smith had a rather more frenetic descent. He overshot the summit turn point and had to be called back by the others behind him. He repaid the compliment with a brisk descent which took him past them to second place. Justin May took the Over 40s category with an excellent 5th overall ahead of Doug Corrie and Desie Shorten, while a resilient Graham Porter took the Over 50s from Brian Byrne and Richard Flynn.
In the women's race, another Longford junior Deirdre Hopkins came to the fore. In a close fought race between her, Eva Mulleady, and Jane Watt, the Longford girl maintained a slight advantage to the unusual uphill finish. The race had started with a short descent to the Glencree river at Lackandarragh, before the 240 metre climb to the summit of Knockree. On the way back the short descent turned into a real sting in the tale. However, the amazing Jane Watt had no problem in overcoming it for third. Amazing? Jane had won the Finglas Marathon three days earlier.