Week ending Saturday 18th September
International selection for Andrew Glennon and Aisling Lane
The Tailteann Inter-Provincial Schools T&F held last Saturday in Santry was the trial event to select Irish teams for the SIAB Schools T&F International to be held in Derbyshire (England) in two weeks time. Given her dominance in race walking in her age group in recent years, there was no surprise that Aisling Lane (Mercy Ballymahon) won the girls 3,000m race walk with ease, well over half a lap ahead of second place A bonus for Aisling is that she was presented with the cup for best race walking performance at the Tailteann T&F. In the corresponding boys 3,000m race walk, Andrew Glennon (St. Finian’s College) also won very comfortably, with over 150m to spare on his nearest rival. These wins should see Aisling and Andrew selected on the Irish schools team. For Andrew, this will be his International debut, which is a great honour for him, his family, his school, and of course for the Club. Andrew’s older siblings, his sisters Edel, Rachel and Sarah and his older brother Matthew have also represented Ireland, so this will be the fifth Glennon to represent Ireland in International competition, which is a record from one family in Mullingar Harriers. Aisling made her International debut only a few weeks ago in early August and is delighted to have another opportunity to compete in an Irish vest again. Congratulations to them both from everyone at the Club.
Also competing and seeking selection was Ross Killalea (Colaiste Mhuire) who competed in the 1,500m but despite turning in an excellent performance in an extremely competitive race, his fifth place finish won’t be enough to earn selection on the Irish team but he can still be satisfied with a good result in his final track race of the season.
Ratoath Half Marathon
The Ratoath Half Marathon last Saturday morning attracted 307 entries to the eagerly anticipated third edition of the event, starting and finishing at Fairyhouse Racecourse. Still operating under current Covid health restrictions of a maximum of 200 runners in a group or wave, the competitors were set off in 2 waves, based on predicted finish times. Among the front row in the first wave was our own Eddie Newman, looking to build on recent fine performances on the road in Kilcock, Kilbeggan and Castlepollard. Running along with some good competition helped to bring out the best in Eddie and he was happy to finish strongly in 78 minutes 4 seconds, placing him eighth overall and first in his master age category.
It’s great to see live in-person racing continue and more and more races are scheduled in the coming weeks and months, including the Mullingar Half Marathon at the end of September, where a big number of the Mullingar Harriers adult members are entered to compete. As more and more Covid health restrictions are relaxed, we look forward to seeing things slowly returning to what we regarded as normal and took for granted before the Covid pandemic hit Ireland in March 2020.
Check the Club’s website at www.mullingarharriers.com or its Facebook page for all the latest news.
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