Irish Junior International runners Niall Duncan (UCC) and Deirdre Hopkins (Lough Ree AC) were first in the men’s and lady’s race respectively at Maulin. This was the annual University Championships and a counting race in the Winter League series. Go to pictures.

UCC brought a very strong team and convincingly won the team prize with 19 points. Their nearest challengers were the WIT team on 119 points.

In contrast to the last race where the Veterans were predominant, this race, being a University event, was dominated by the younger set. Four of the top 5 were representing their colleges. In that top five, second overall was Bryan Keane (UCC) and third was newcomer Jonathan Daly (UCD) who was also classified as first junior.

The first male Vet was Kevin Grogan who held his own amongst the youngsters to finish eight overall. First lady Vet was Majella Diskin (Riocht), who finished just 11 seconds behind first lady, Deirdre Hopkins.

First in the M50 category and first time out this season was Calvin Torrans (Dal Riada). First lady in the F50 category was Ger Power (3ROC)

On the short course – Ciaran Fitzpatrick (North Laois AC) was first.

A new face this week was Aidan Doyle (Crusaders), finishing thirteenth, an American living in Ireland and running for his college Bolton St. DIT. Aidan was determined to get the most out of his body this Sunday by starting with a cycle from St. Stephens Green to the race, then hitching a lift back to the North Side to run in the Raheny 5, after which he was planning to cycle back to town.

Another person out for the first time this season was ex Rogaine World Champion, Michael Walters who finished sixteenth in the race.

And for the ‘anoraks’ out there - although the winner Niall Duncan, finishing in 36.37 broke the student record of 37.33 set by Ian O’Neill last year – the finishing times of many of the runners were 2 to 5 minutes slower than their time in this race last year. The race was exactly the same length – I wonder did Maulin get higher!!!

Remember – to score in the Winter League you need to have completed 3 races.

If you have done 1 race you can still get two more by going to Curtlestown and Tibradden, the last race in the series.

As car-parking space is limited at Curtlestown – if possible, please try and arrange to meet in Enniskerry and share a car with others out to the race start.