Week ending Saturday 7th August

Medal winning International Debut for Aisling Lane

There were some great performances from the Irish team that competed at the Franconville Invitational International under 18 T&F meeting at Stade Jean Rolland in Paris last weekend. A strong team of twenty three athletes, including Mullingar’s Aisling Lane, competed against teams from France, Spain, Switzerland, the Netherlands and Flanders, gaining very valuable experience competing on the International stage. It proved a huge success for the Irish team, with a number of personal bests and medals, including a bronze medal for Aisling in the 3,000m race walk on Sunday morning. Spain and France are the leading Countries in underage race walking in Europe, so the standard of competition was of the highest calibre, but clearly inspired by the strong performance of her team mates, and even though Aisling was the youngest member of the Irish team being still only 15 years of age, she gave a great account to finish third in this very technical event and win a bronze medal on her International debut.

Congratulations to Aisling and now that she has made her competitive debut for Ireland, her name will be added to the International Roll of Honour in the Clubhouse, the one hundred and thirteenth name on the roll, so far.

Northern Ireland Senior T&F

Using the 3,000m race walk at the Northern Ireland Senior T&F at the Mary Peters Track in Belfast last Saturday to measure his progress in training towards the AAI National Masters T&F in September, Sean McMullin was delighted to finish second against senior competition. Also competing in Belfast were Andrew Nevin and Lorcan Mullen, where Andrew was very happy to win the bronze medal in the 3,000m steeplechase and Lorcan finished well up in his 1,500m race to place well on time over the results of the three races, with the final places decided on times.

Raffle Winners

Sincere thanks to everyone who bought a ticket for our recent fundraiser raffle. As you know, the proceeds go directly towards the new state of the art all weather track, which is the biggest undertaking by Mullingar Harriers Athletic Club since it was founded in 1975. There was a limit of 2,000 tickets and while we didn’t quite reach that limit, tickets sales were still very strong and we’re delighted with the support we received and the final ticket sales total.

There can only be one winner of the top prize of €20,000 and David Fagan was the name on the lucky ticket drawn first from the drum, the second prize of €2,000 was won by Lucia Brady and the third prize of €1,000 was won by Dave O’Shea. There were also nine other valuable prizes and we’re extremely grateful to the local businesses that donated prizes. Congratulations to all our prize winners and many thanks again to everyone for their support.

Juvenile All-Ireland action this week-end

This coming week-end, the opening sessions of this year’s All-Ireland juvenile T&F finals will take place in Tullamore where Mullingar will have 14 athletes competing in 18 events over Friday evening and on Saturday and Sunday. Please check the Athletics Ireland website for the time of your event to be sure to arrive in Tullamore in plenty of time to collect your number and check in for your event. The latest time for check in is generally forty five minutes before race time for track events. Please also check for details of the public health precautions in place for the Championships, including the link to the Covid health questionnaire.

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

PRO