Peugeot Race Series 2023 – Team Success for MHAC (20th Aug)
The Peugeot Race Series is a series of eight road races, which took place across the Country since March and it concluded on Sunday 20th August with a 10 mile race in Cork. The race series has both individual and team competitions; the team competition varying from the norm, with mixed teams of three men and three woman to score in each race.
Mullingar Harriers have once again taken third place in the series, to back up their third place from 2022. This is a wonderful result for the club and a testament to all our athletes who put themselves forward to compete in each of the races.
The Mullingar athletes started their series with a very fast evening 5k race in Kilkenny in April, with a solid showing from Vinny Connolly, Ian McCormack, Kris Foster, Sinéad Whitelaw, Aine O’Reilly and Susan Glennon. This team finished in fourth position, behind strong teams from Dundrum South Dublin AC, Leevale AC and Kilkenny City Harriers AC.
The series then moved into May, with two races within six days of each other, in Johnstownbridge and Tullamore. The Bob Heffernan-Mary Hanley 5k race in Johnstownbridge is always a very competitive road race and the Harriers team was delighted to finish second, led home by Vinny Connolly in third place with a swift 14:51. He was backed up by Andrew Nevin, James Keegan, Sinéad Whitelaw, Jenny Algar and Aine O’Reilly. Another team of six athletes, namely Andrew Nevin, Ken Whitelaw, Andy Boyhan, Sinéad Whitelaw, Susan Glennon and Jacintha Reilly acquitted themselves well in the Ashling Murphy 4 mile race in Tullamore to finish fourth team. At this stage in the series, at the halfway point, Mullingar Harriers was delighted to be lying in third position.
The Michael Manning 10k race in Dunshaughlin in June was the next race, and the Mullingar team finished well in third position, with nice running by Andrew Nevin, James Keegan, Kris Foster, Sinéad Whitelaw, Susan Glennon and Joan Flynn. There was then two 10 mile races within a couple of weeks, in Roscommon and Edenderry, which Mullingar fielded strong teams in. Andrew Nevin, James Keegan, Kris Foster, Sinéad Whitelaw, Joan Flynn and Jacintha Reilly ran well to get second team in Roscommon, while in Edenderry the team line up changed a little again, with Alan Crowley and Kieran Nolan joining Andrew Nevin, Sinéad Whitelaw, Joan Flynn and Jacintha Reilly to finish in fourth place.
Following the seventh race in Edenderry, Mullingar had secured an overall third team place in the series and opted not to field a team for the final race in Cork city last weekend. The club should be very proud of the fifteen athletes who made up the various teams, with nine different men and six different woman scoring on the teams, a testament to the depth of strong athletes in the club. The team race series was won by DSD AC and Clane AC finished in second position.
