Week ending Saturday 15th August

Best of luck to Oisin and Jack

Everyone at Mullingar Harriers wishes the very best of luck to Oisin Lane and Jack O’Leary and the entire Irish team as they take on the best in Europe at the European T&F Championships in Birmingham this week. Oisin and Jack will compete on what we might call “Super Saturday”, when Oisin has an early 7.30am start for the half marathon race walk, while Jack toes the line for the 10,000m at 8.25pm in the evening. Those lucky enough to be in Birmingham will be able to shout for them in person, but everyone else can keep up with the action on TV or the livestream.

Mullingar Masters “battle” to a big medal haul in Raheny

Due to essential maintenance work in St. Anne’s Park, Raheny at Easter, the Raheny Shamrock AC “Battle of Clontarf” 10 mile, which incorporated the Athletics Leinster 10 mile Championship, had to be rescheduled from its usual Easter Monday date to the August Bank Holiday Monday and took place last Monday week (3 Aug). Very warm and humid conditions on the morning made what is already a testing race even more of a battle for the 322 finishers. Mullingar Harriers was well represented with full men’s and women’s teams at the start line.

The first home for Mullingar was a determined Eddie Newman in 61:49, winning the Leinster gold medal in his master category. Kieran Nolan ran strongly in 67:15, as did Gerard Gavin (69:42). Mary Stuart could be relied on to lead the women’s team home (73:25) and won her Leinster master category with ease. Also running well was Barry White (76:35), Zane Smukste (77:51) with a fine fourth place in her master category and just missing an individual medal, Paul Ginnell (79:11) and Mark Dunne (80:18). With the temperature rising with each mile, Linda Cunningham (83:17), Claire Lennon Gavin (86:33) and Kelly Dunne (87:29) fought hard all the way to the finish line. Joan Mulvihill had a very solid, steady run, finishing in 90:31 and was thrilled when she was awarded the Leinster bronze medal in her master category.

When the team scores were sorted, Mullingar really proved their strength and depth. The over 35 master women team of Mary, Zane and Linda was second Club and awarded Leinster silver medals. The full team of Mary, Zane, Linda, Claire, Kelly and Joan finished second senior county. The over 50 master men team of Eddie, Kieran and Gerard took the gold medals for first club. Our full team of Eddie, Kieran, Gerard, Barry, Paul and Mark was second senior county and also awarded the Leinster silver medals, meaning everyone who ran received at least one Leinster medal. There was a very impressive 21 Leinster medals in total awarded to these 12 athletes, who all placed in the top 10 in their respective age categories among the Leinster competitors [LC].

Strong showing at IFAM Outdoors

Three Mullingar Harriers athletes were in action at the World Athletics Continental Tour Bronze IFAM Outdoors Meeting in Oordegem, Belgium last Saturday week (1 Aug). Colin P Smith continued his excellent recent form with fourth place in his 1,500m in a time of 3 minutes 42.19 seconds. While this is outside Colin’s club record, it was a fine run against quality international opposition.

Cormac Dalton raced the 5,000m and was rewarded with a season’s best time of 13 minutes 33.04 seconds. Despite missing a lengthy spell through injury earlier in the season, Cormac has progressed well over the summer and his commitment is rewarded with moving closer to his best again. Jamie Battle recorded his third consecutive personal best and sub-14 minute performance for 5,000m with a time of 13 minutes 52.58 seconds and can be very pleased with such consistency.

This is the first time in the clubs history that four members have broken fourteen minutes for 5,000m in the same season with Cormac Dalton, Jack O’Leary, Diarmuid Fagan and Jamie Battle all bettering the mark in recent weeks [JR].

T&F Medals Galore for Mullingar Masters

The National Masters T&F was held in a warm but breezy Santry last Friday evening and on Saturday where the small group from Mullingar Harriers made their presence felt, with each taking home a medal. Given the increase in numbers taking part in masters T&F, the programme was getting too big for one day, so to reduce the length of the programme, some events were held on the Friday evening and the rest on Saturday.

First into action on Friday evening was Paddy Boyhan in the master men high jump where he leaped to gold in his age category to add to his growing collection of National titles. Also winning a National title was Ramona Carey in the master women shot put, delighted to take the win and claim gold. Staying with the field events, Tom Walsh competed in the master men weight for distance, hurling the heavy 28 pound (12.7kg) with great consistency over the four throws to win gold and take another National title with ease.

Moving to the track, Aidan O’Donoghue put in a good performance in the master men 100m Hurdles, negotiating the barriers with great skill to finish second and win the National silver medal. We finished the evening with the master men 5,000m race walk where Colm Walsh and Sean McMullin put in their customary flawless performances to win gold in their respective age categories to round off an excellent medal-winning evening for Mullingar Harriers.

Paddy Boyhan returned to action on Saturday and in warm sunny conditions jumped to gold in the master men long jump and win his second National title of the Championships. On the track, Aidan O’Donoghue had been targeting a sub-30 second 200m all season to help his multi-event points. A stiff headwind on the home straight made for less than ideal sprinting conditions for the master men 200m but undeterred, Aidan gave it his best effort and while he finished out of the medals in fifth place, was delighted to record a time of 29.96 seconds, reaping the rewards of all the work put in at training. Dan Morris led out the early laps of the master men 5,000m to set up a great race. He was passed after about 2k but kept to his task in third place, continuing to work hard and while he was passed on the final sprint on the home straight to cross the line in fourth place overall, he was first in his age category and delighted to win gold and the National title to round off an excellent competition for the Mullingar masters [GD].

Elsewhere on the road

Hosted by Longford AC and taking place on the four Wednesday evenings in August, round one of the Longford 5k Trail Series took place last Wesnesday evening. The first round was along the Royal Canal in Longford Town. Among the 117 finishers was three from Mullingar Harriers, led home by Darragh O’Donoghue with a fine sixth place finish in 19:38, followed in by Therese Glynn and Kieran Dodrill crossing the finish line together in 23:24 [GD].

The Kells Heritage 5k last Friday evening attracted a good entry of nearly 490 athletes, including six from Mullingar Harriers, led home by Mark Darby in fifth place in 16:09, followed by Kris Foster seventh in 16:45 and Shane McLoughlin ninth in 16:55 to take the team prize for first Club. Also competing well was Johnny Morrissey (17:00), Darragh O’Donoghue (19:29) and Barry White (21:21) [GD].

Ballinamore AC hosted their annual 5k and 10k road race last Sunday where Shane McLoughlin continued his recent good form and broke the tape in the 5k in 17:27 to take the win ahead of just over forty others in the race. In the 10k race, among the nearly eighty competitors was two from Mullingar Harriers and Mark Darby was happy with his second place finish in 34:20 on the hilly course. Darragh O’Donoghue also found the course tough but was delighted to finish in tenth place and record a personal best of 42:53 for the distance [AO’D].

Check the Club’s website at www.mullingarharriers.com or its Facebook page for all the latest news.

PRO