Week ending Saturday 4th February
Excellent start to Schools Cross Country
The schools cross country season got underway for Mullingar athletes last Friday morning when the North Leinster Schools Cross Country was held at a very cold “Fifteen Acres” in the Phoenix Park. Despite having hosted the West Leinster Schools and the East Leinster Schools in the two days previously, underfoot conditions were surprisingly good. Competing for their schools and colleges, as expected, the Mullingar athletes were in terrific form, returning home with three individual wins, another eleven top 12 finish places and three sets of team medals too. The top twelve individuals and top three teams in each race qualify for the Leinster Schools Cross Country to be held in Santry next week.
Emma Lagan (St. Finian’s College) raced to a fine eleventh place finish in the minor girls 1,200m, and with support from Blathnaid Peters, Lisa O’Brien and Sadhbh Carey, the St. Finian’s team was unlucky to finish out of the medals in fifth place, but not too far off the medal places. The minor boys 1,600m saw another St. Finian’s team chasing honours but it wasn’t to be for Daniel Glennon, Aaron Conroy, Ciaran Mulvany or Ronan Kelly, who together with Cian Hyland (Colaiste Mhuire) ran well but finished out of the individual and team medal places.
Lydia McDonnell (Loreto Mullingar) had an excellent race in the junior girls 2,000m where she worked hard all the way and was rewarded with a twelfth place finish. There were plenty of Mullingar athletes in the junior boys 2,200m, led home by Conor Walsh (Colaiste Mhuire) in twelfth place to book his place in the Leinsters, followed by Oisin Kehoe (St. Finian’s College), Conor Geoghegan (Colaiste Mhuire), Txema Lozano (St. Finian’s College), Adam Feery (Mercy Kilbeggan), Dylan Feery (Mercy Kilbeggan) and Conor Mulvany (St. Finian’s College), but there were no team honours won.
The intermediate girls 1,600m is an extremely short distance for girls this age and proved no problem for Caoimhe Kilmurray (Loreto Mullingar) who finished third, just ahead of Grace Byrne (Loreto Mullingar) in fourth. Ailbhe O’Farrell (St. Finian’s College) had a terrific race to finish eighth, just ahead of Jessica Cunningham (Loreto Mullingar) in ninth, also having a great race. With great support and team packing from Loreto’s Siofra O’Halloran, Muireann Donohue and Siofra O’Reilly, the Loreto Mullingar girls placed first team. Conor Sherwin (Colaiste Mhuire) was in flying form and won the intermediate boys 3,800m with ease. David Burke (St. Finian’s College) stormed through in ninth place, with Conor Liston (Colaiste Mhuire) in twelfth, just ahead of Pablo Lozano (Colaiste Mhuire) in thirteenth. Thanks to great team support from Luke Greene, Niall Brady, Jorge Martin and Daniel Hickey, Colaiste Mhuire finished first team. Despite the efforts of Matthew Molloy, John Glennon and Barry Walsh (St. Finian’s College), there were no team honours for St. Finian’s.
Continuing her excellent return to competition, Aimee Wallace (St. Finian’s College) led the senior girls 2,200m race home to take the gold, with Caoimhe Donohue (Loreto Mullingar) finishing strongly in tenth place, booking their places in the Leinsters. The final race of the day, the senior boys 4,200m saw another individual victory go to Mullingar as Diarmuid Fagan (Colaiste Mhuire) romped home, followed by Ross Killalea in fourth and with support from Adam Brady, the team clinched the title too as Colaiste Mhuire finished first team. Andrew Glennon and Conleth Mullen (St. Finian’s College) also competed well but finished out of the individual places and didn’t have a team.
Irish University Indoors
The Irish University Indoors were held in the NIA Dublin last Saturday. Odhran Cully (TCD) ran in the very competitive heats of the 200m but despite a good effort, he didn’t advance to the final. He returned at the end of a long day for the final event and helped TCD to third place in their timed heat of the 4x200m relay, placing a very creditable fifth overall on time. Shauna Leydon (UCD) comfortably won her heat of the 800m and in a tactical final, had just enough in reserve in the finish straight to win. Shauna also returned later in the day to help UCD win the 4x200m relay, earning maximum points in her two events to help the UCD team to finish third place in the women’s competition. Eoin Quinn (DCU) easily won his heat of the 800m and in the final, looked very strong and dipped nicely under two minutes to win in a close finish. Charles Okafor (DCU) easily won his heat of the 60m and though he ran quicker in the final, finished just out of the medals but earned valuable team points for DCU. Little surprise that Matthew Glennon (DCU) was simply in another class in the 2,000m race walk and won by a big distance, nearly two laps ahead, to earn maximum points for DCU. The points won by Charles, Eoin and Matthew helped DCU to win the men’s competition.
Raheny 5 Mile
One of the most eagerly awaited events on the road race calendar, the Raheny 5 mile took place last Sunday afternoon. A measure of the popularity of the race is that just over 3,800 finished the race, and the widely recognised fast course attracted some of the best road runners in Ireland. Mullingar was represented by a small group, but they made their mark with some excellent performances. Finishing in 27 minutes 38 seconds, Andrew Nevin led the Mullingar group home, followed in by Johnny Morrissey (28:10), Kieran Nolan (29:47), Enda Seery (31:05), Glenda Shaw (33:31) placing a very creditable ninth in her master category, then Liam McGlynn (33:57) and Marie Louise Johnston (38:59).
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