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28 November, 2009

Hat Trick For Lenihan On Barnastooka (Barr na Stuaice as Gaeilge!)

Though recovering from a serious injury sustained from a fall during the recent Carrauntoohil race, John Lenihan, the former World Champion of Riocht AC, fought off the un-welcome attention of James Mc Intyre of Tulla AC and Des Woods of ACKC to win the inaugural Barnastooka mountain race on Sunday.
In winning the race John added stages of the Irish Championship, Munster Championship and King Of the Mountains to his 2005 achievements.

The race was taken out by Mc Intyre, Lenihan and Sean Twomey of Gneeveguilla AC,joint race organizer with John Egan over whose land the race was run. Lenihan and Mc Intyre pulled away from Twomey on the way out to the summit for the first time. Lenihan was ahead at the summit with Mc Intyre 2nd and pushing. Mc Intyre pulled out all the stops on the descent, passed Lenihan and led all the way down to the Egan homestead. He led out the 2nd lap with Lenihan chasing in 2nd place and Twomey 3rd. Lenihan found another gear 200Metres into the 2nd lap and passed McIntyre. Des Woods of ACKC and Eoin Mc Kenna of Riocht, who will be joining John on Team Ireland for The World Trophy in Wellington, New Zealand in September, were making strong head-way at this point. They passed the tiring Mc Intyre and were joined by a recovered Sean Twomey. Mc Kenna and Woods teamed up to chase Lenihan at this point but Lenihan had about 30 seconds on Woods on the 2nd summit, with Mc Kenna some distance behind .Woods made serious inroads into this lead in the closing stages but it was not enough to take out the great one. John came in to win on 58.19 with Woods a close 2nd on 58.39 with almost a minute to spare on Mc Kenna who finished on 59.33.

Offaly woman Edel Mooney, who will also be representing Ireland in New Zealand, had it all her own way in the Ladies category which she led from start to finish on a time of 1.13:19 from Maureen Foley, Bilboa AC who finished 2nd on 1.18:36. Zoe Melling of Rathfarnaham was 3rd on 1.20:37. Paul Lenihan of Riocht
had a fine win in the Junior Boys category when he finished on 1.15: 20 whilst nursing an injury sustained in the recent World Trophy Trial. Swiss visitor Lucie Babel won the Junior Ladies category when she finished on 1.27:50.

The race which was run in a natural panoramic arena which has to be as close to heaven as one can get. Up to 50 athletes took part and the event attracted the largest crowd of spectators seen at any Munster mountain race this year. Athletes from the U.S, Canada ,Switzerland, the United Kingdom and Northern Ireland participated alongside athletes from most Southern Irish counties. The course was extremely well marked by John Egan and Sean Twomey with strong technical support from John Lenihan. Mary Cotter was chief time-keeper on the occasion and did a superb job. The event was sponsored by John Healy-Rae who also provided an abundance of fine food for runners and supporters alike after the race. It is easy to understand the success of the Healy-Rae dynasty in Kerry and in the Kilgarvan area in particular. Local is where its at as far as Jackie, John and their respective families are concerned . The organisers wish to thank them.