Kilkenny Racewalking Grand Prix 2024 (5th May)

Before the main T&F season gets underway, most of the Mullingar Harriers racewalkers made the long trip down to the Sunny South East on Sunday 5th May for a day of open races hosted by St. Joesph’s AC, the Kilkenny Racewalking Grand Prix in Pink Rock, in south Kilkenny, just across the river from New Ross.

First on the road was Matthew Glennon attempting a pacing exercise over 20k. The effort of winning the Leinster Novice Road Championships the day before took it’s inevitable toll on his technique and so led to him being promptly disqualified. The honour of being first Harrier home went to the ever-young Colm Walsh with a quite easy victory in the Masters 5k.  Next home, was Andrew Glennon who completed the longer 10k. He finished 2nd senior overall and easily the 1st u/20 man across the line. Aisling Lane too was at her ease in comfortably winning the Open 10k by a substantial margin.

While the u/20, Senior and Master athletes were competing over the longer distance, a series of Juvenile races took place. Doing his first ever 2k race was the very young Gareth Glennon. Not daunted by the distance, he paced himself well and so destroyed the rest of the field for a special debut victory. Finally, it was the turn of Daniel Glennon. With an eye to the future, rather than race his own u/16 distance of 3k, Daniel decided to do the 5k race instead, which is usually for older walkers. While many would be scared of such a challenge, not Daniel. He walked with calm control to finish unstressed and only just outside of the medals. All in all a very pleasant experience in scenic surroundings with nice sunshine – a perfect competitive way to enjoy a bank holiday weekend [ML].