Week ending Saturday 2nd November
Leinster Novice Title for Claire Fagan
With very heavy rain, including a status yellow warning, experienced in the south of the country during the week leading up to the Leinster Novice, Junior and Juvenile Even Ages Cross Country held in Gowran, Co. Kilkenny last Saturday, we feared the worst for ground conditions. As expected, the ground was soft and challenging in places but was actually not as bad as feared. While conditions underfoot were tough in places, clear blue skies and dry cool calm weather certainly made up for a lot and it was a beautiful day for cross country running. Congratulations to Gowran AC for building an excellent course in very tough weather conditions, a course that included some long gradual drags and corners to challenge the athletes, finishing with a good long, slightly uphill straight to the finish line. The only black cloud was the shocking number of Club athletes that were entered to run but did not show on the day. Some were injured or ill, and that is perfectly understandable, but most did not let anyone know they would not be running. Nearly 100 juveniles were entered but only 66 turned up. This will be taken into consideration when selecting teams for Ferbane in two weeks time and for the All-Ireland finals in late November.
Competition was for boys and girls u/12, 14, 16 and 18 years and for junior and novice men and women and Mullingar had representatives in every race. Despite nearly a third of underage athletes missing, of the eight underage races, Mullingar won team medals in five of them to dominate in the Inter-Club competition and Westmeath won team medals in three of them; there was also sixteen individual top twelve finish places. This means that there will be big representation from Mullingar and Westmeath in the All-Ireland finals in Abbottstown at the end of November and the Leinster teams will have a good number of Mullingar athletes too. Not to be outdone, our adult members were in excellent form too. The junior women and men won Club team medals and Claire Fagan won the novice women race in style and led the team to Club and County medals. Our novice men were very unfortunate to miss bronze Club medals by just one point and Andrew Nevin finished just outside the medals in fourth place despite running in third place for most of the race.
The day began with non-Championship races over 1,000m for boys and girls under 10 years of age, and athletes as young as 7, 8 and 9 years of age from Clubs across Leinster competed with great enthusiasm. Jack Geoghegan and Zack O’Leary ran in the u/10 boys 1,000m race where Jack finished fifth and Zack was not far behind him and both thoroughly enjoyed the run.
After the excitement of the u/10 races, it was over to the first race of the Championships, the 2,000m for girls u/12 where Tianna O’Leary battled throughout to finish very strong in eleventh place. With great support from Jayne Charles, Lydia McDonnell and Muireann Reihill making her debut for Mullingar and providing the vital fourth team score, the girls finished third Club. Also running well in support was Katie Glennon, Therese Daly, Muireann Galvin, Síofra O’Reilly, Marianne Molloy (Athlone IT), newcomer Blathnaid Peters, Aiveen Lynch and Isabel O’Mara (Athlone IT) but they finished out of the County medals. This means Mullingar will have a Club team in the All-Ireland finals and with a top twelve finish Tianna will also be running on the Leinster team. Despite less than half of the Mullingar team taking to the start line of the 2,000m for boys u/12, such is the talent of these boys that they still finished first Club and fourth County, thanks to sterling efforts by Matthew Molloy finishing in second place, Luke Greene in ninth, Dan Costello (Athlone IT) in eleventh, and Niall Brady, Conor Geoghegan and Conor Walsh providing great team support. Team selection for the All-Ireland finals will be very interesting!
There was no shortage of Mullingar athletes in the 3,000m for girls u/14, led home by Caoimhe Kilmurray with a very determined finish in third place, followed by Morgan Corcoran in eighth, Adele Geoghegan and Leah Geoghegan just outside the top twelve places providing the final team scores to see Mullingar finish first Club. With fantastic support from Grace Byrne, Rachel Murphy, Ellen Daly, Lucy Donnelly, Caoimhe Donohue, Shauna Traynor, Ellen Foran, Síofra O’Halloran, Jessica Cunningham and Muireann Donohue the girls finished second County too, our first set of County medals of the day. With four in the top twelve and six in the top twenty, Mullingar and Westmeath absolutely dominated in the 3,000m for boys u/14. Led home by Conor Sherwin in fourth, followed by Philip McCartan fifth, Conor Liston sixth, Jamie Wallace tenth, Luke O’Leary just outside the top twelve in fourteenth place, Pablo Lozano only a few places behind, and real depth of support from David Burke, Alex Lynch and John Glennon, the team finished first Club and first County and will be a force to reckon with in the All-Ireland finals.
We just had the minimum four for a Club team in the 4,000m for girls u/16, led home by Phoebe Bate in an excellent fourth place, followed closely by Amy Geoghegan in eighth and with strong finishing by Annie Kilmurray and Aisling Lane the girls were unlucky to finish just out of the medals, fourth Club, only a few points off third place but they’ll still advance to the All-Ireland finals. Ten entered but only three turning up put paid to any team medals for Mullingar in the 4,000m for boys u/16. That didn’t stop Diarmuid Fagan putting in a great effort and even though running out of his age, he was rewarded with second place. Also running well was Andrew Glennon, Conor Heavin (Athlone IT) and Martin Foran, despite knowing there wasn’t enough of them to make up a team.
The 4,000m for girls u/18 and junior women was a combined race where the u/18 girls could win medals in both the u/18 and junior race. Leading the Mullingar team home in thirteenth place overall was Bea Drummond (u/18), followed by Meabh Killalea (u/18), Aoife Darby (junior), Andrea Brady (junior), Catriona Kennedy (junior), Karla Cunningham (u/18), Lisa Gavin (Athlone IT, junior), Laura Shaw (junior) and Elysia Greene (junior). Bea and Meabh finished twelfth and thirteenth in the u/18 race, so Bea received an individual medal but unfortunately Meabh missed out by just one place. When the u/18 and junior results were separated, the junior women team finished second Club and fourth County, just out of the County medals.
The final underage race on the programme was another combined race, the 6,000m for boys u/18 and junior men, where like the corresponding women’s race, medals could be won in u/18 and junior. Matthew Glennon (u/18) led the Mullingar men home by with an excellent ninth place finish, followed closely by Eoin Quinn (u/18) in twelfth. Then came Oisin Lane (u/18), Colin Smith (u/18), Lorcan Mullen (u/18), Brian Martin (junior), Ruairi Fagan (u/18), Tadhg Hunwick (u/18), Ciaran Luby (u/18) and Paul McCool (u/18) packing well in support. Matthew and Eoin finished fourth and seventh place respectively in the u/18 race. When the u/18 and junior results were separated, the u/18 team finished first Club and second County and the junior team finished second Club and a very creditable fifth County.
Moving to the adult races, there was a big field for the novice women 4,000m but keeping on the leader’s shoulder from the start was Claire Fagan running strongly and smoothly and with less than one kilometre to go Claire took the lead and pulled away to win well by a distance to clinch the Leinster novice woman title. Packing in behind Claire and running brilliantly, and finishing strongly and with great determination was Sinead Whitelaw, Michelle Bohan, Anna Broderick, Amy Mahony and Alanna Bate to finish second Club and second County, fantastic results for the Mullingar women team.
The day ended with the novice men 6,000m, which as usual was one of the biggest fields of the day. Andrew Nevin ran a patient race, keeping out of trouble close to the lead group, lying in third for most of the race, but when the final push for home came, he was very unlucky to be passed in the closing stages and relegated to fourth place, missing a podium place by just one spot. Finishing very strongly behind and despite great support from James Keegan, Gerard Gavin, James Cribbin and Barry McDonald, the team was very unlucky to finish fourth Club, missing the bronze medals and a place on the podium by just a single point.
That rounded off an excellent day for Mullingar with lots of individual and team successes and excellent running by everyone. The second round, for Senior and juvenile uneven ages will take place in Ferbane, Co. Offaly in two weeks time. The juvenile even age teams that qualified from Gowran last Saturday will go forward to the All-Ireland Finals in Abbottstown, Dublin in four weeks time. Juvenile uneven teams for the next Leinster will now be finalized by Club officials this week but in the meantime it is vital that everyone continues to train hard and be in the best possible condition for the next round of the Leinsters and for the All-Ireland Finals beyond, so we expect everyone to keep in full training over the coming weeks, especially in Belvedere this week-end.
Mullingar athletes among big entry at 40th Dublin City Marathon
When places went on sale nearly a year ago for the 2019 Dublin City Marathon, there was a frantic scramble akin to panic buying in a sale at the time, but like many things bought in haste in a sale that get tossed to the back of the press never to be used, so it was with thousands of places in the last Sunday’s fortieth edition of the Dublin City Marathon. Pre-race reports of over 22,500 entrants turned into nearly 18,000 actually making it to the start line for the early 8.45am start, as the long months of endurance training took its toll. Among them were 34 adult members of Mullingar Harriers eager to put the many months of hard graft and training under the careful guidance of Colm Walsh to the test. Whatever number actually took part and finished, the crowd was absolutely huge, making it the fourth biggest marathon in Europe, according to the organisers. The 42.2km route took the competitors from the start on Fitzwilliam Square out of the city by Stoneybattter, through the Phoenix Park, back through Inchicore, around UCD and back into the city, and conditions were perfect for long distance running, starting cold but dry and temperatures slowly rose as the race developed. The event incorporated the AAI National Marathon Championships and the Leinster Championships, so there were individual and team medals on offer but we will have to wait until later in the week to learn if any of the Mullingar members that finished were lucky to win any medals.
The marathon is one of the ultimate endurance tests and for some their race went to plan, running a personal best (PB) in some cases, but some others will have to chalk it up to experience and wait until the next time, if there is one, to achieve their goal. With a repeat of last year, first for Mullingar to finish was Evan McCormack in a new personal best (PB) of 2 hours 46 minutes and 58 seconds and our first woman home was Joan Flynn in 2 hours 57 minutes and 23 seconds, which are excellent performances by two of the Club’s stand-out master athletes. Other taking part included Ken Whitelaw (2:49:51), Patrick Muldoon (2:56:07), Kieran Nolan (3:01:31), Gerard Brady (3:12:08), Elizabeth Carr (3:13:50), Eoin Lynch (3:13:51), Sean Liston (3:13:57), Alan Crowley (3:16:33) unfortunately suffering calf cramps at 18 miles that wrecked his race plans, Jennifer Algar (3:21:56), Stephen Olwell (3:35:25), Robin Jackson (3:38:35), Criona Reid (3:40:05), Declan Costello (3:44:43), Mary Stuart (3.45.35), Jane Creevy (3:46:30), Ciara Dillon (3:51:20), Stephen Bell (3:57:15), Siobhan Farry (3:57:19), Joanna Tyrrell (3:57:55), Kevin O’Brien (3:59:36), Joe Fagan (4:08:12), Mervyn Kennedy (4:11:11), Eamonn O’Reilly (4:14:49), Geraldine Langtry (4:15:28), Siobhan McCarthy (4:16:42), Ruth Greene (4:23:19), Paddy Daly (4:24:07), Linda O’Driscoll (4:31:44), Pauline Troy (4:42:52), Michael O’Sullivan (4:50:11), Michelle Kavanagh and Geraldine Walsh. Congratulations to them all from everyone at the Club, and apologies if we missed anyone, but it really is next to impossible to search so many results to find every Club member that finished.
Enda Seery competes in Frankfurt Marathon
Running in very similar conditions to those in Dublin, Enda Seery was among the nearly 23,000 participants in the Frankfurt Marathon last Sunday, where he was targeting a 3 hour 30 minutes time but finished in 3 hours 36 minutes and 44 seconds. He was still delighted with the time, as he had tried his best, and knows to finish a marathon at all is an achievement and it was six minutes faster than the time he ran in Dublin 2 years ago.
Mullingar athletes on International duty
Congratulations to Club members Eileen Kenny, Brigid McCabe, Aine O’Reilly and Gerard Gavin who received confirmation last week of their selection to represent Ireland at the British & Irish Masters International Cross Country in Aintree, Liverpool in mid-November. They earned their international selections thanks to strong performances at the recent AAI Autumn Open Cross Country. For Gerard in particular it will be a very special occasion, as it will mark his International debut.
November Committee Meeting
The November meeting of the committee will be held next Tuesday 5th November in the Clubhouse at 8.20pm after training and a full attendance is requested.
No training on Halloween
This Thursday is Halloween, so there will be no training at the Club and the grounds will not be open. Enjoy the festivities and stay safe!
Finally, the Executive and members of the Club extend sincere sympathy to Eddie Newman on the recent death of his sister-in-law, Helen Ward (née McCormack). May she rest in peace.
For the latest results, news and details of all upcoming fixtures check the Club’s website at www.mullingarharriers.com.
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