Tailteann Inter-Provincial T&F 2026 (20th June)

There were three Mullingar Harriers racing at the Tailteann Inter-Provincial T&F in a sunny SETU Carlow on Saturday 20th June. Lily Walsh (Loreto Mullingar) representing the Leinster Schools team ran in the Intermediate girls 3,000m. The race was run at a solid pace from the gun with Lily going straight to the front and Eleanor Kiernan (Ursuline Convent Thurles), representing the Munster Schools team, sitting a few metres off in the middle of the pack. With two laps to go the pace began to ramp up and Lily was passed but kept pushing on in second place, with Eleanor moving into sixth. It was only in the last 30 metres that the race changed dramatically as Lily suffered a hard fall during the sprint finish, ending her challenge for a win, but she got up and forced herself over the finish line to secure 3rd place, while Eleanor kept up the effort and was rewarded with a fine 6th place finish.

The Intermediate boys 1,500m was a very tactical affair. Cillian Galvin (Colaiste Mhuire & Leinster) was in his first year at Intermediate and giving away a year to many in the field, but he ran a very tactically astute race. The pace was very slow for the first 800m and Cillian was  in a good position to cover all moves, sitting in the leading group. With 700m to go the race favourite dropped a 13 second 100m and split the pack, but Cillian had the move covered and was in a group of four that broke away from the main pack and gave chase on the leader. With 300m to go Cillian made his move for home and started to chase the leader down and moved into second and it was only down the home stretch that he got caught and pushed into third but was delighted to run a huge personal best of 4 minutes 10.77 seconds and win the bronze medal for 3rd place [CW/TW].