Douglas Community School athletes enjoyed another hugely successful day at the first day of the Munster Cross-Country Championships held in Dungarvan, winning team medals in the boys’ u14, u16, and u18 races. In the u14 race the schools newest young athletes raced over 1500m in their first ever Munster Championships and ran superb to take team bronze. They were led home by Jack O’ Mahony 15^th, Liam Harris 18^th, Alan Ring 22^nd and Jamie O’ Connell 27^th.  In the u16 race the team had a great day with six Togher runners finishing in the top 14 with Emmet Bracken a great 5^th, Ian Tobin 7^th, James Kelleher 10^th, Andrew O’ Keeffe 13^th and Eoin Bourke 14^th. The team took the gold easily with the ‘B’ team 4^th. In the u18 5000m race Patrick Coleman ran strongly to take 3^rd place and other great runs came from Peter Hanrahan 4^th, Mark Seacy 11^th, Cullen Lynch 14^th and Jamie Sullivan 18^th. The team unfortunately lost the team title by a mere four points and so got the silver medals. They can however be satisfied with their performance considering they were missing a scoring man in Brian Murray who was sick and Cullen Lynch who was also not fully back to form having been sick during the week. No doubt they will give the All-Ireland title a real go in five weeks time and shoot for the three in a row. Well done to all on some superb performances.

Last year's Ras Na hEireann International Cross-Country (February 2009)

Steven Macklin

Douglas Community School athletes competed at the first leg of the Cork Cross-Country Championships held in Carraig Na Bhfear recently. It proved to be a fantastic day for the school, as DCS won all the team titles and had two individual winners.

Each of our new young athletes pulled their weight in the boys’ u14 1500m, producing some magnificent displays, with captain Alan Ring leading the team home in a superb third place. He was backed up with great runs from Liam Harris (7th), Kevin Horan (11th) and Jamie O’ Connell (12th). Others to run well were Fintan Cadogan, Alan Horgan, Johnny O’ Connell and Stephen Cotter. The ‘A’ team came first and the ‘B’ team came third in their first ever county championships. The future looks bright for this talented bunch of guys.

In the u16 3000m Ian Tobin produced an outstanding display of endurance battling with another athlete throughout the race, before losing out just metres from the finish line, taking an excellent second place nonetheless. Behind him the team was doing very well with Emmet Bracken finishing a great third, Andrew O’ Keeffe fifth, and Eoin Bourke sixth. Other good runs came from James Kelleher (7th), Brendan Couch (11th) and Eric O’ Neill (16th). The team easily won the team title with the ‘B’ team coming second.

Finally in the u18 5000m race, another head-to-head battle was served up with Peter Hanrahan and Patrick Coleman having a real ding-dong battle all the way to the finish line. Peter led most of the race with Patrick alongside. Both of them pulled away easily from the others in the race and competed all the way to the line with Patrick just edging it by a metre or so. Behind them Cullen Lynch came strongly through the field to finish a great fifth and Mark Seacy a super sixth. Other great runs came from Brian Murray (8th) and from Jamie Sullivan (9th). The team easily won the title with the ‘B’ team coming second here also.

Douglas Community School would like to congratulate the Douglas Under-16 Gaelic Footballers who defeated Ballincollig to become County Champions.

Craig Murphy, a recent graduate of Douglas Community School and now a freshman at Iona College in New York, placed 22^nd in his first collegiate competition last weekend. Murphy, from Togher AC in Cork and grandson of the famous Kerry footballer Jas Murphy, was fifth man for the Gaels covering the 8-kilometre course in 24:08 at the Paul Short Invitational held at Lehigh University in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania on 2 October 2009.  Iona placed second in the meet with 55 points, 11 points adrift of the winners, Indiana University. This was an outstanding run for Craig as it was his first race of the season with all his attention focused on the NCAA Cross-Country which will be held in Terre Haute Indiana in November. Craig was a star here in Ireland at schools level winning All-Ireland titles on the track and over cross-country as well as representing Ireland on numerous occasions. All at Douglas Community School would like to wish him the very best of luck in the future.

Well done to the First Year soccer team, who defeated Nagle Community School on Monday, 9 November 2009, with a score of 7-0.  Goals were scored by Ryan McCarthy (4), Dáire O’Shaughnessy, Robert Coughlan and Pierce O’Keeffe.