D.S.D Women 1st at National Road Relays!

DSD's senior athletes were out in force in Raheny at this year's national road relays championships. Our women were hoping to retain their title from last year, over the 3-leg event (1 mile, 2 miles, 1 mile). Maria McCambridge led the team out for the first 1-mile leg, hoping to add another national title to her extensive list of achievements. Maria ran a very strong leg over the unfamiliar 1-mile distance and handed over in 3rd place to Emma McEvoy, only a few seconds shy of the leaders UCD. Emma took the bit between her teeth and surged in pursuit of pole position, quickly overtaking everyone ahead of her and pushing ahead into the lead. By the end of the 2-mile leg Emma had opened up a significant gap over the rest of the field, leaving 2nd placed UCD well in her wake. Eimear Maher, thankful to her teammates for giving her a generous lead, didn't hold back when taking on the glory leg. Eimear continued to open the gap and led DSD to a comprehensive victory, finishing 32 seconds clear of 2nd placed UCD, with Raheny Shamrocks taking the bronze.

In the senior men's race, DSD had two teams competing in the 4-leg event (2 miles, 1 mile, 3 miles, 2 mile). The first team was led off by Aaron Donnelly who ran a storming leg to put DSD into an early lead handing over to Seán Quinn. On the 1-mile leg, Seán kept the pressure on at the front of the lead group and handed over Killian Mooney, in 3rd place, just a few seconds off the lead. Killian, fresh from his recent win at the Dublin City Half Marathon, took off on the 3-mile leg and pushed hard at the front all the way until the final handover, only losing the lead in the final kick. Emmet Jennings took the baton on the final leg and put in a valiant effort to contest the medals, but just didn't quite have the leg speed to keep with the shorter-distance specialists ahead of him. Emmet brought the men’s team home in 4th position, just outside the medals.

DSD’s second men’s team was made up of Patrick Elliott, Andrew McGilton, Éanna Ó Brádaigh and David Gormley. They put in another strong team performance and finished 11th overall, out of a field of 26 teams.

 (Thanks to Robert for Report & photos)