Douglas Community School athletes have had a busy week competing at the Cork Schools Invitational Cross-Country Championships at Cork Institute of Technology and at the All-Ireland u11-u19 Cross-Country Championships at the Curragh.

At Cork IT the school competed at the second leg of the Cork Schools Invitational Cross-Country Series and came away with two team wins in the First Year boys’ race and the Second/Third Year boys’ race. The First Year race was held over 1000m and the school was led home by Sean Barber, Ben Smith, Daniel Barry, Patrick Hajdul and Michael Scully. In the Second/Third Year race over 2000m, Fionn Bracken led the team home with a great run. He was assisted by Declan O’Herlihy, Dan Begley and Fintan Cadogan.

The school had athletes in action also at the All Ireland u11-u19 Cross-Country championships at the Curragh and it proved to be a very successful day. The u15 team came third with a superb run by Liam Harris in fourth and great runs also by Luke Varian, Caleb Sullivan and Jack Twomey. The u17 team came sixth led home by Billy Murphy, Jamie O’Connell, John Durcan and Eoin Bourke. The best was saved for last as the u19 team became All-Ireland team champions taking the title by 21 points. They were led home by Cullen Lynch, David Kelly, Jamie Sullivan and Cillian Fleming.

Steven Macklin

Douglas Community School athletes competed at the first leg of the Cork Schools Invitational Cross-Country League held at Tramore Valley Park recently. The weather conditions were ideal for racing with blue sunny skies. The First Year students raced over 1000m and here the school’s team ran superb winning the team title with eight athletes in the top 16 out of 120 people. The team was led home by Sean Barber fourth, Cian Dadgar fifth, Sean Smith sixth and Michael Scully seventh. The combined Second/Third Year race was held over 2000m and here DCS also won the team title led by Declan O’Herlihy in third place and fine runs from Jack Twomey, Fionn Bracken and Dan Begley.

The school also recently got the news that they will represent Ireland at the World Schools Cross-Country Championships in Malta in March. A seven-man team from the school will travel to the prestigious event for u17s which is only held every two years. Douglas Community School finished fifth at the event in 2010. Congratulations to the team on their selection.

Steven Macklin

At the Cork u20 Championships the schools athletes had a clean sweep of the medals, with Peter Hanrahan first, Cullen Lynch second and Cillian Fleming 3rd. The team also won the gold medals. At the Munster Championships the u13 team finished in 11th place with great runs by Ryan Herlihy, Michael Scully, Shane Madden and Evan Scully. The u15 team came first led by Liam Harris in second place, Luke Varian 10th and other fine performances by Stephen Cotter, Caleb Sullivan and Jack Twomey. The u17 team came first also with Billy Murphy a superb third and great races from John Durcan, Alan Ring and Eoin Bourke. Finally the u19 team also won the gold medals led by Cullen Lynch in fifth place and a fine performance by Cillian Fleming in 10th place. Well done to all the athletes on some great performances.

Douglas Community School athletes had another very successful weekend competing at the Munster Even Age Cross-Country Championships at Newmarket-on-Fergus, Co. Clare. Weather conditions were tough and a difficult course added to the challenge. The u14 boys team came a superb fifth place in their first ever Munster Championships, led home by David Smith and with other superb runs from Ben Smith, Michael Scully, Ethan Bevan and Ryan Herlihy. The u16 team came second with Jamie O’Connell having his finest ever run in 11th place with Alan Ring 13th, Luke Varian 14th and Stephen Cotter all having great runs also. The u18 team took team gold with Billy Murphy in sixth place and he was followed home by Ian Tobin, Brendan Couch, Eoin Bourke, Emmet Bracken and John Durcan.

There was more great news for the school this week when they u17 team was selected to represent Ireland at the World Schools Cross-Country Championships in Malta next March.  This is a huge achievement for the school.

Steven Macklin

It has been a busy two weeks for Douglas Community School athletes as they competed in the Cork Cross-Country Championships held in Carrignavar and Conna.  They proved to be very successful championships for our athletes with the school having county champions in the u16 (Liam Harris) and u17 (Billy Murphy) races.  In the team events the u13 team came second led by new first year athletes Ryan O’Herlihy, Michael Scully, Dylan Kelly and Shane Madden. The u14 team came first led again by Ryan O Herlihy, Michael Scully and captain David Smith. In the u15 3,500m event the team also came 1st and were led home by captain Luke Varian, Caleb Sullivan, Jack Twomey and Stephen Cotter. The u16 race was held over 4000m and the team took a great win with some outstanding racing by Liam Harris, Alan Ring, Luke Varian and Jamie O’Connell. Billy Murphy showed his oustanding progress to win his first county cross-country title in the u17 5000m race and led the team home in 1st place with Eoin Bourke third and Brendan Couch sixth. The u18 team finished second with great performances from Billy Murphy, Eoin Bourke and Ian Tobin. Finally the u19 team took home the gold medals in the 7000m race with Cullen Lynch second, Patrick Coleman fourth, David Kelly sixth and Cillian Fleming seventh. All in all, a great championships for the DCS athletes.

Steven Macklin

Steven Macklin

Douglas Community School athlete Cullen Lynch rounded off a superb year by winning the All-Ireland Clubs u19 1500m title on the track in July. Cullen has been improving steadily over the past few years ever since he started athletics in the school five years ago. His All-Ireland win this summer was a huge step up in his career and one that puts him on the radar of some collegiate coaches. Cullen was also the captain of the schools senior cross-country team that had a famous victory over the mighty St Malachy’s College, Belfast in March at the All-Ireland Schools Cross-Country championships and also finished fourth in the All-Ireland Schools Senior 1500m in June. All at the school would like to congratulate him on his superb achievement.

Steven Macklin

It was an unbelievable day for Douglas Community School at the All Ireland Schools Cross Country Championships on Saturday with DCS winning the senior boys team title and the junior boys winning team silver.

The National Aquatic Centre in Abbotstown Dublin was the perfect venue for the AVIVA All Ireland Schools and Irish Universities Cross Country Championships. The flat course provided great underfoot conditions and as a result fast running was the order of the day. It proved to be a day that will long live in the memory of the schools athletes with every athlete producing their best ever performances.

The minor boys were first up over 2500m and produced great results, coming seventh team in their first ever All Ireland Championships. James Gorton led them home in 23rd position and other great runs came from Evan Byrne, David Smith and Alan Morgan.

The junior boys produced the biggest performance of the day winning the silver team medals, having finished third at the Munster championships. It was an absolute storming peformance by these guys with Liam Harris running a proverbial blinder coming 12th, missing out on a place on the Irish team by three seconds. Behind him Jamie O’Connell had his finest ever run to come 26th and with Declan O’Herlihy and Fionn Bracken running well the team took the silver medals.

Douglas Community School came a good sixth in the intermediate team contest with great runs by Billy Murphy and Eoin Bourke.

The senior boys 6500m race was full of drama from start to finish. The team were without the services of number one runner Peter Hanrahan, but still managed to win the team title after a very close team battle with St Malachys College, Belfast. DCS took it by a mere point, but the manner in which the team came together on the day and the guts they portrayed throughout the race was amazing to witness. The team captain, Cullen Lynch, led by example with a superb 17th place finish. Behind him Patrick Coleman, Ian Tobin and Emmet Bracken were running mighty races and kept the St Malachys team at bay. Congratulations to Cullen, Patrick, Ian, Emmet, Cillian, Mark, Dave, Rob and Jamie on a great win and one that will not be forgotten in a hurry.

Finally in the University race the school had past pupils Alan O Brien CIT, Craig Harrington CIT, Adam Kelleher CIT all running very well. Well done to all the athletes on a truely magnificant day for the school.

Steven Macklin

Douglas Community School athletes recently competed at the Munster Schools Cross-Country Championships at Cork Institute of Technology and produced some outstanding displays.  DCS had all four teams (Minor, Junior, Inter and Senior) qualify for the All-Ireland Championships and also retained the Best Overall School Cup for the seventh consecutive year.

The course at Cork IT was testing with some mucky patches and one small climb. First into action were the Minor Boys over 2500m and here the Douglas Community School team had a fine third place finish. James Gorton led the team home in ninth place and there were other great races from Barry Forde 25th, Aidan De Saulles 31st, David Smith 33rd, Daniel Burke 34th and Alan Morgan 35th. The Junior Boys team were without the services of four of their top athletes due to illness/injury but performed very well to finish in third place. Liam Harris led them home with a superb run for fourth place and with Declan O’Herlihy 18th, Jamie O’Connell 21st and Fionn Bracken 22nd the team came a great fourth. In the Inter 5000m Billy Murphy led the DCS team home in ninth place and Eoin Bourke had a super run for 13th. Here the team took third place also. Finally in the Senior Boys 6000m race, Shane Quinn of Waterford took the pace out hard from the start and Peter Hanrahan was the only one to go with him. Peter however suffered from the fast pace and ended up being caught by the athletes behind. Patrick Coleman was a super third, Emmet Bracken fifth, Cullen Lynch sixth, Ian Tobin 10th, Cillian Fleming 12th and Jamie Sullivan 16th. The team packed very well and won the team title easy with 24 points. The athletes now travel to the All-Ireland Schools Cross-Country championships in Dublin on 12 March in search of further glory.

Steven Macklin

Douglas Community School athletes competed in a Mile Challenge at the Mardyke Track recently. Over 60 athletes took part in the mile challenge with two races taking place. The first year race had 29 finishers with Ruairi Casey having a superb win in a time of 5.42, with James Gorton second (also 5.42) and Barry Forde 3rd. Other great runs came from Daniel Leahy, Alan Morgan, Aidan Desaulles and Evan Byrne, all under 6 mins. In the senior race after a slow first lap Peter Hanrahan stretched out the field and won in 4.36 from Danny Mullins 4.38 and Emmet Bracken 4.43. Other great races came from Patrick Coleman, Ian Tobin, Mark Seacy and Billy Murphy. This race was a good test for all those competing in the All-Ireland Cross-Country championships in Derry next weekend where the school has u14, u16, u18 and u20 teams in action. Best of luck also to Craig Murphy a past pupil at Douglas, who is competing for his college Iona in America at the NCAA Cross-Country championships in Terre Haute Indiana.

Steven Macklin