Column O’Leary
Staff Writer
Saturday the 9th of November saw the beginning of the competitive running season for DUHAC, with the Harriers taking part in the annual Colours Road Relays against close rivals, UCD, which took place around Trinity campus.
Each team consisted of four legs: runners on the first and last legs ran 1.1 mile (2 laps of the course) while runners on the second and third legs ran 2.2 miles (4 laps of the course). The course began at the Pav and traced the outskirts of the rugby field, before turning left at DU Players. After turning right after the Museum Building, there’s a final 300m stretch around the cricket pitch to complete the lap.
It was a cold but convincing afternoon for Dublin University Harriers. Great attitude and commitment from every athlete (in both the race and training) saw both men and women teams from Trinity taking the spoils. At 12:30, the women’s race saw two DUHAC teams battle it out against a single but strong UCD team. Two very convincing runs from Aisling Ahern and Laura Brennan saw their team get the better of UCD to take a well-deserved victory. There were also great performances from Caroline Lawless and Blaithín Sheil, who both made their competitive debut for DUHAC on Saturday.
The Men’s race began at 13:15. It turned out to be a highly competitive affair, with five strong teams (three from Trinity and two from UCD) competing for first place. After much toing and froing between all five teams, two Trinity teams broke away on the third leg, due to two impressive performances from John Moroney and Eoin McCullough. The final leg saw Cathal O’ Donovan and Harry Molloy neck and neck for 1200m. However, there could only be one winning team, and Molloy made one last push to lead his team to victory. There were a number of top-drawer runs from Trinity athletes such as Aaron Reen, Thomas Martin and Guglielmo Ziani.
The strength in both numbers and performances of runners at Colours Road Relays has made the upcoming competitive year very promising for DUHAC. The next competition is National Intervarsity Road Relays which take place on Saturday, 23rd November in NUI Maynooth Campus. The club hopes it will continue its success from last year, when DUHAC’s first team placed third in both the men’s and ladies competitions.
