THE country's in form distance runners Joe Sweeney justified his tag as the pre-race favourite when he convincing won today's 27th annual AXA Raheny 5 road race. Defending title holder Sean Connolly from Tallaght AC made a determined bid to complete a hat trick of wins in the event - but he had to give way to the DSD athlete who previously won the event in 2007.

Sweeney left it to the last minute to register but once the gun went off he took charge and eventually crossed the finishing line in 23:23 - an excellent time but still well short of the course record of 22:39 held jointly by Gerry Curtis and Cormac Finnerty.

Paddy Hamilton from Annadale Strikers was third in 24:24; ahead of Sean Hehir while Daire Birmingham was the first Raheny finisher in 5th place.  Arguably, however, from a club perspective the best male performer in the race was Kevin Dooney who finished a magnificent tenth in 25:16  and predictably he was the first junior home. Runner-up in this sector was Jake McDonnell who also ran exceptionally well taking 22nd place overall in 26:27.

The female winner Deirdre Byrne (Sli Chulann) also left in late to register but she came through the field to finish first in 26:45. Aoife Talty ran a magnificent race in the Raheny colours to take second spot in 27:38 with Catherine Conway (Mayo AC) in third place.

Raheny won the senior men's event while Annette Kealy was first female over 40 and Damien Martin was first O 45 in the men's category.

Provisional Race Results are now available on website - just click on the icon on the left hand side named  AXA Raheny 5, 2011.

Once again the event was blessed with excellent weather and many thanks to everybody who contributed to the success of the event. See you all again in 2012 on the last Sunday in January.