BLE National Marathon Results and Report 1988

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Results of BLE National Marathon Championship 1988

Wexford

Sunday April 24th 1988

John Woods, winner of New Balance BLE National Marathon 1988

MARATHON REPORT by Peter Byrne, Irish Times, Monday April 25th 1988

Woods makes dream true with emphatic win

JOHN WOODS surveyed the graphic evidence of his conquest in the New Balance National Marathon championship at Wexford yesterday, and then delivered himself of the statement which may find it's way into the list of the year’s more quotable quotes in Irish sport.

"I dreamed long nights a way about running in the Olympic Games and today, at the age of 32. I discovered that dreams are sometimes for real. This race eventually came down to a question of who wanted to go to Seoul most. I guess my need was greatest “

Woods, born in Liverpool of Irish parentage, had just won the fastest and finest marathon championship ever run in this country, finishing in two hours 11 minutes 30 seconds, some 86 seconds faster than the championship best time Dick Hooper produced in Limerick six years ago.

Ironically, or perhaps inevitably. the resourceful Hooper was now in second place, assuring himself of a nomination for Ireland's Olympic squad by returning career best figures of 2:12:19.

The women's race was won by Marie Murphy-Rollins, the former Dundrum athlete, who is now resident in California. Mrs Rollins finished in 2:40:48. some four minutes 30 seconds ahead of the DCH representative Ailish Smyth.

With John Treacy, the silver medallist at Los Angeles, almost certainly assured of selection, there were, effectively, only two Olympic qualifying places on offer yesterday and that, sadly, means that Jerry Kiernan. still scarred by the effects of running two marathons almost back to back m the US last year, it now out of the reckoning for Seoul.

Kiernan, ninth at Los Angeles and, unquestionably, the most consistent Irish marathon runner in the intervening period, saw the painstaking efforts of the last four years come undone, when he limped out of the race after 22 miles.
At that stage, the veteran Kerryman, his face betraying the immense disappointment of it all, was back in fourth placeand secretly cursing the doubtful merit of a system which ordains that Olympic selection should be based on the result of just one race.

That system will, I suspect, continue to provoke questions, but if there had to be just one race to determine the relativities of Irish marathoning, this surely was it.

Some 85 athletes may have faced the starter but, essentially, the men's race was all about just five runners. Woods, Hooper, Kiernan, Roy Doonecy and Eamonn Tierney. Right from the off, this quintet surged to the front, testing and seeking each other out, a long way removed from those covered up in the body of the race.

The early pace suggested that the title would be won in 2:11 or 2:12, with the first five kilometres being run in I5 minutes 25 seconds, and the 10 kilometre mark being reached in 31:15.

I be fastest segment of the race was immediately before and after the half-way turn and, significantly, it was here that the leading group at last began to break away. Tierney, winner of the Glasgow Marathon, was the first to drop, but then, dramatically. Kieman was struggling. Hooper kicked. Woods and Dooney responded, but, in a matter of strides, we sensed that Kiernan's confident challenge was broken. After running with some composure for 15 kilometres, his stride began to shorten and instinctively, those around him sensed that he was in trouble.

If Hooper had posed the initial question, it was Woods who delivered the answer, and the manner of the response was sufficiently confident to demoralise the experienced Dubliner, who was seeking his fifth success in the championship.
Woods, 15th in quite the best performance of his career, in the world Cross Country championship, at Auckland last month, was running only his second marathon and predictably, he produced a substantial improvement of seven minutes on his figures in New York last November.

Hooper’s performance yesterday was a mixture of the good and the bad, but he confessed to being almost dropped by the pace, at both the 15 and 25 kilometre marks. Yet. as other times he was running in a manner which suggested that he might bring off that coveted fifth success — “at the end of the day, the important thing was that I should qualify for Seoul, and give myself the chance of getting rid of some of those Olympic nightmares which have haunted me."

The women's race was won with some panache by Marie Murphy-Rollins, who took control at a relatively early stage, and, in finishing 22nd in the overall race, in a time of two hours 40 minutes 48 seconds, assured herself of a place in the Seoul line-up.

Al one point she was threatened by Ailish Smyth, who moved to her shoulder at the 10 kilometre mark, but later it was another DCH athlete, Emily Dowling who was running in second place. Mrs Dowling, hoping to emulate the achievement of her husband Michael, in representing Ireland in Olympic competition, was still running in second place, with just four miles to go, but then capitulated in the face of a renewed challenge by Ailish Smyth.

Clonmel AC's Press Cuttings

 
Clonmel AC, BLE National Marathon Club Champions 1988

Clonmel Report on National Marathon 1988

Results - BLE National Marathon Champuionship 1988

Irish Times Results Snippet

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