Week ending Saturday 18th January
National Indoor bronze for Aidan O’Donoghue
The National Indoor Combined Events were held last Sunday at the NIA in Dublin where Aidan O’Donoghue competed in the master men Pentathlon. When he submitted his entry, Aidan wasn’t expecting much in the way of results and was simply using the event to blow off the cobwebs for future events. However, always the competitor, despite less than great performances by his standards in the 60m hurdles and long jump, Aidan continued to compete with determination and improved his overall standing in the high jump, shot put and 1,000m to end the competition in third place in his master category, delighted to win the National bronze medal.
Encouraging performances at the AAI Indoor Games
Four Mullingar athletics took part in the AAI Indoor Games at the NIA in Dublin last Saturday. First up was the women’s 1,500m where Grace Byrne and Jessica Cunninghan toed the line in a quality field. Unfortunately, Jessica had to stop midway as she was feeling the effects of a recent heavy head cold, but Grace was determined to get a good opening to her track season following on from an excellent cross country season and stuck with the early pace throughout and came home in fourth place in a new personal best of 4:35.89.
Moving on to the men’s 1,500m Conor Sherwin and Jamie Wallace ran very good races to open up their 2025 season. With their attention more focused on upcoming schools cross country at the moment, they took the opportunity to get some speed into their legs but the race didn’t develop as they were expecting and it turned out to be a very tactical race, but both were very still happy to get racing indoors after the cold spell.
Colm Walsh competed in the men’s 3,000m race walk, which set out at a very fast pace. Colm is very experienced and knew the pace was too fast and couldn’t be sustained, so rather than give chase he wisely ran his own race and settled into second place behind. The leader inevitably had to ease back in the closing stages, allowing Colm to start closing the gap, which spurred him on and while he still finished in second place, he was very pleased with his time of 15:17.18 so early in the year.
Leinster Cross Country
The first Leinster cross country fixture of the New Year, the Intermediate and Masters cross country and Juvenile cross country relays, takes place in Kilcormac, Co. Offaly this Saturday. Mullingar has entered 12 juveniles and 35 women and men, so we’ll have competitors in most events on the programme. We wish them all the very best of luck.
Notice of Annual General Meeting
The Club’s Annual General Meeting takes place in the Greville Arms Hotel, Mullingar on Friday 24 January, starting at 8pm. We hope to see all our adult members attend and the parents of the many underage athletes who receive training, coaching and guidance throughout the year. The meeting will take about an hour and a half and we urge everyone to show your appreciation of the work done at the Club by attending the AGM.
New Fit 4 Life programme starting next week
A new Fit 4 Life programme will commence next Monday (20 Jan), with registration from 6:45pm that evening at the club. This programme is ideal for those who are either beginners or just doing some occasional jogging, We will have experienced coaches to help people regardless of their level of fitness to progress over the course of the 10 week programme that will run each Monday evening until early April.
Membership for 2025
Thank you to all those that have paid their membership for 2025 already. The handiest way to pay membership is online and the online system is open for everyone, except those aged 8, 9, 10 and 11 years of age. It’s important to pay as soon as possible so you are insured to train at the Club and of course to enter indoor events and road races that will take place in the coming weeks.
Membership for the youngest members aged 8, 9, 10 and 11 years will be taken on the open day on 25 January and cannot be done online. Membership for these young girls and boys will be taken on a first come first served basis and when the groups are filled, we’ll take no more. Membership for these young members will only be taken at the open day and cannot be done online; they will return to training in early February.
Check the Club’s website at www.mullingarharriers.com or its Facebook page for all the latest news.
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