The Daddy of all road races "The Axa Raheny 5" blew everyone away today. What a great day of excitement from start to finish. To see the crowds back in the north east Dublin suburb was just fantastic. From early morning the crowds started to build and with that the buzz and intensity of excitement increased by the hour too.
With so much uncertainty over the last few months, host club Raheny Shamrock AC managed to pull off a cracking event. This strong community club has managed to capture the hearts and minds of not just the local community but clubs and individuals from all over the country. Community, inclusion and participation is very much a big part of the Raheny 5. These strong characteristics that are embedded in the Raheny 5 came from the club members and it's leader Pat Hooper who passed away in October 2020. His larger than life spirit and incredible love for people, his love of the community, his love for the sport and everyone that surrounded him still shines strong. He is the "Raheny 5" and the "Raheny 5" is Pat.
This year Pat's son Dave Hopper took on the role of Race Director. Dave is certainly a chip off the block as he took to the task at hand like a duck to water. He produced a master class event with crew of club members that was enjoyed by so many people.
The day started off like all previous years with the kids races. Over 700 took part with the noise decibels at a very high level with fun and excitment on All Saints Road. This was very much all about family and community. Smiles, smiles and more smiles is all we could see as the kids raced their way around the short course. We think most of the kids enjoy the famous goodie bag of treats rather than the racing. Hopefully this expereince will live long in their memories and help prodcue stars of the future.
Then came race time. With over 4,000 entries, just over 3,100 took to the start line. After a year with no race and an empty road on the same day and at the same time last year we were ready to rock again. Dick Hooper and Susan Walsh gave the count down across the PA system and we were off agin for the 38th AXA Raheny 5 Mile 2022.
The race attracted some extremely fine athletes from all parts of the country for both the men's and women's races.
In the men's race, pre race favourite Efrem Gidey of Clonlife lead the pack out with Ryan Creech. There as a great tussle bewteen both athletes for long periods of the race. It was not until about 500m from the finish that Efrem kicked home to tate this years tilte. Ryan Creech of Leevale AC was 2nd and Ben Branagh of St. Malachys AC was 3rd.
The men's team winners were Leevale AC and the over 40s team winners were Portmarnock AC.
The women's race was also jammed with quality athletes. Fionnuala McCormack was the stand out athlete on the start list. Fionnuala has had some outstanding performances over past few months, including Valencia Marathon clocking a PB time of 2hrs 23mins 58 secs and 2nd fastest Irish women over that distance. A week later she finished 9th in the Spar European XC. Today Fionnuala was again the winners with a comfortable lead all the way through.
The womens team winners were DSD AC and the over teams winners were host club Raheny Sahmrock AC.
Well done to everybody who contributed to a great day including, Participants, local authorities, Gardai, residents and Raheny Shamrock AC.
START LINE VIDEO
WINNER VIDEO
WOMENS WINNER VIDEO
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