Maynooth College was the venue for the 2011 All Ireland Universities Road Relay Championships. This was the first race of the year for the athletes and they did not disappoint. UCD captained by Richard Owens and Laura Shaughessy, brought home silverware for the first time since 2006.

The 1st race of the day was the women’s race and the A team finished a very creditable 5th position. The team was led on the 1st leg by Ellie Hartnett who despite carrying an injury ran a very brave race finishing with the 3rd fastest time on the day. Laura Shaughessy was next and ran an excellent leg, she got the team back into 2nd and it was game on, then Ciara Everard ran a very steady 3rd leg not her favourite distance but showed great team spirit and battling qualities to hand over the final change in 4th position. Shauna Moran tried valiantly to get a medal and despite running a very strong leg UCD had to settle for 5th position. The race was won by DCU A and UCC were 2nd.

The final race was the Men’s and proved to be the race of the day.  DCU were the favourites having won this event 6 years running and with their so called dream team including European medallists (John Coughlin, son of Eammon) and (Mark English who recently set a national 800meter record) they were heavy favourites to win it easy again. But Captain Richie and his boys had other ideas and having been training hard all year under the guidance of the irreplaceable James Nolan.

James had the boys training hard from early on and also showed how team work is essential in winning team titles and that really showed through on the day. Despite the team losing Dave Campbell and Chris Johnston to injury, Richie and James chose a strong Mens team to go out and make some history.

The Mens A team was lead on the 1st leg by Captain Richie who ran a super leg and handed over in 2nd position behind DCU A team. Dan King was next and ran a strong leg to hand the boys over in 2nd but in front of the DCU A team, then it was Joe Sweeney who produced one of the greatest 3 miles ever witnessed on that course and handed UCD a lead of 40 seconds over the favourites who were shell shocked. Cian O Rielly was next and ran a very solid and composed leg and maintained the advantage for Timothee Francony who had the simple task of just taking it home and he did that easing home with 24 seconds to spare over the overwhelmed DCU team.

Overall a very successful weekend and now we look forward to the cross country in February where UCD will try and mix it up again. Training will become more intense now as James will try and conjure up another team to try and win more trophies and medals.

A huge thank you goes to everyone in UCD Sport and the new staff in The High Performance Centre who have looked after the team all year. The team is eternally in-depth to the work James Nolan has put in all year.