OWL Indoors 2025 (2nd Feb)
Everyone has a “hoot” at the OWL Indoors
When Athletics Offaly invited Westmeath and Laois to join them in a three-way indoor event in Athlone on Sunday 2nd February, dubbed the OWL Indoors (for Offaly, Westmeath and Laois) it was definitely an experiment. By pooling officials from the three Counties, each County could hold its Indoor Championships and while we thought it would be popular, we really didn’t really expect the massive entries from each County, which meant the day was very long and left everyone waiting around a lot longer than expected. That said, from first race to last, everyone had a brilliant time, an absolute “hoot” to borrow from the OWL name for the event, and it was great to see so many Mullingar athletes participating in so many events, with some taking the opportunity to try new events too. Westmeath was represented by Mullingar and Athlone AC and it was great to see the rivalry in each event and Mullingar certainly didn’t have it all its own way, with fierce competition between the two Clubs. The juvenile programme ran on so long that the 4x200m relays had to be completed on the outdoor track to free up the indoor stadium for the adult races in the afternoon.
Of the more than 120 medals to be won in individual events from u/9 to u/16, Mullingar athletes won nearly 90 of them, in addition to 13 medals in the relays, a very impressive medal haul by our juveniles. Hopefully they will use this success to spur them on for the rest of the indoor season. With so many medals won by our juveniles, we couldn’t possibly list them all here but very well done each and every one of them for giving their parents and coaches such entertainment.
Moving to the afternoon programme for u/20, Senior and Masters, we got underway with the long jump where Colm Walsh competed and was very pleased to win gold, and Aidan O’Donoghue also won gold in the master men shot putt. On to the 200m where Kyle Faherty won his u/20 race, Mohammad Al Bashir won the senior 200m, Claire Lennon Gavin and Linda Cunningham were first and second in the master women 200m, and Aidan O’Donoghue won the master men 200m. Conor Liston dropped down to the u/20 men 400, a distance he hadn’t run previously indoors and after a crash course last week on starting blocks, he showed blistering pace over the first 200m and drew clear of his rivals to win. Not having much rest after the 200m, Linda Cunningham returned to the track for the master women 400m and was delighted to win gold, and Aidan O’Donoghue also returned for the master men 400m where despite the fatigue he was happy to win another gold medal.
Ailbhe O’Farrell tried a new distance on the indoor track, running a good race in the u/20 women 800m, coming home in second place. Jamie Wallace and Conleth Mullen also dropped down to 800m, a distance they hadn’t run in a few years, but that didn’t have any effect on them as Jamie went straight to the front from the off and came home in first place in the u/20 men 800m in 1:57.23, a massive personal best, and he was followed home by Conleth who wisely decided not to go with the early pace. In the master men 800m, Pauric Brady (gold) and Nicky McCabe were very satisfied with their efforts too.
The men’s 3,000m had the most Mullingar athletes taking part in any adult event. The pace was hot from the start but the Mullingar men got themselves in a train early on with Ross Killea, Pablo Lozano, Mathew Molloy and Oisin Kehoe tracking the leader and it stayed that way for most of the race with Ross going after the leader closely followed by Matthew, Pablo and Oisin finishing in that order behind him. In the master men 3,000m, victory went to Gerard Gavin.
We ended a very long day of competition with the mixed 4x200m relay where Aidan O’Donoghue, Claire Lennon Gavin, Gerard Gavin and Linda Cunningham combined in style to with the master event and send everyone home tired but in hight spirits.
A really big thank you to all the parents and coaches for being so patient and hanging around a lot later than expected to let the Mullingar athletes get the most from the day [GD].
