Week ending Saturday 7th March
Mullingar athletes give a strong showing at the National Senior Indoors
While Mullingar Harriers fielded a small squad of just eight athletes at the National Senior Indoors held at the NIA Dublin last week-end, they certainly packed a big punch, three of them winning medals, two recording personal bests, and a magnificent performance by Daniel Glennon who finished inside the qualifying standard in the 5,000m walk for the European u/18 Championships to be held in Italy in July.
Patrick Leydon was first up for Mullingar when he competed in the 400m heats on Saturday morning, finishing third in heat 6 of 7 in a new personal best of 49.64 seconds to advance to the semi-finals as a non-automatic qualifier. Despite drawing the same lane 3 in semi-final 2 of 3, not ideal for a man of his build, Patrick ran even quicker to finish third in 49.40 seconds, another personal best, but with just the top two advancing to the final, he narrowly missed out but was still very satisfied with his performances and his times and can bring this forward to the outdoor season ahead.
There were three heats of the 1,500m and to add to the confusion for the race commentator, both the Mullingar Colin Smiths were drawn in the same heat. With only the top four to advance to the Sunday’s final, the race quickly settled into a fast pace, with Colin P Smith and Colin D Smith right in the thick of the action from the start, staying with the leading pack as the laps counted down. At the bell, it was a furious sprint over the last lap to get into the top four and both Colins gave it their all, but while Colin P finished fourth to advance to the final, he unfortunately ran Colin D into fifth place, so he missed a place in the final even though his time would have won the first heat and would have seen him qualify comfortably from the second heat, but that’s the luck, or bad luck, of the draw, though Colin D was very stoic about it after, satisfied that he had given it his best effort.
The race walks were on Sunday morning and it was no surprise that with a big field of fourteen women jostling for position in the women 3,000m walk, it was a very bumpy start, but Aisling Lane lost no time surging to the front to get safely out of trouble and settled into her race. Maintaining a good rhythm as the fifteen laps counted down, Aisling kept up the pressure at the front but was unable to shake off the very experienced Kate Veale (West Waterford AC) who tracked Aisling closely throughout. With three laps to go, Kate kicked hard and moved to the front and despite Aisling’s best efforts, by the bell lap she knew the title was gone but she pushed on to take second place in 14:07.13 and win the National silver medal.
It was great to see three Mullingar athletes in the men 5,000m walk, Oisin Lane, Matthew Glennon, and young Daniel Glennon in his first senior competition. Oisin was clearly the stand-out pre-race favourite and he didn’t disappoint. With a polished performance, he led from gun to tape to take the title, his seventh National senior walk title, to go with his previous three 20k, his two 35k and his 10k titles, but this was his first Indoor senior walk title, and he beamed with pride as he crossed the finish line in 19:39.92. Meanwhile, Matthew was also having a great race behind Oisin and was involved in a great battle for silver and bronze, but unfortunately he fell foul of the ever-vigilant judges and incurred a 30 second time penalty, which was enough to see him drop from second to third place, but he was still very satisfied to win a National medal. While Oisin and Matthew were clearly battling for medal honours, Daniel, who is only 16 years of age and will not turn 17 until November, was focussed on achieving qualification for the European u/18 Championships to take place in Italy in July. Daniel’s target was to finish inside the 23 minute standard, and thanks to terrific preparation and coaching by Michael Lane, and sticking to his pre-race plan, he achieved this by a big margin, finishing seventh overall in 22 minutes 9.14 seconds. While Aisling, Oisin and Matthew were delighted to win their medals, in true team spirit, they were equally delighted for Daniel. Congratulations to Daniel and he can now focus on his training for Italy, free from the worry of chasing the standard.
Entries were so big for the men 3,000m that they were split into three races, with John Ryan drawn in the B race. John was focussed on not only winning his race, but setting a new personal best too. With a determined effort he took to the front in the closing stages but was caught on the final run-in to finish third, but a time of 8:27.91, a new personal best for the distance, quickly dispelled any real disappointment he might have felt. Of interest is that this time would have seen John finish comfortably mid-pack in the A race, which will give him great confidence for the outdoor season ahead. We ended the day with the 1,500m final where Colin P Smith was delighted to be lining up in a National senior final. He gave himself every opportunity as he kept right with the leading pack for much of the race and though he ran considerably quicker than in his heat the day before, he finished out of the medal places, but can be very proud of his efforts [GD].
Very successful Leinster Schools Cross Country
Postponed and re-scheduled for the second time in two weeks due to waterlogged ground in the Phoenix Park, the Leinster Schools Cross Country had to re-locate and was finally held at the Navan Adventure Centre last Friday. Due to illness among some, Mullingar Harriers had a smaller group competing for their schools and colleges than had qualified, but the eighteen that did run certainly didn’t disappoint, with an impressive twelve of them advancing to the All-Ireland Schools Cross Country finals in Belfast this coming Saturday.
Siomha Leonard was one of two girls representing Loreto College on the day, and in the Minor Girls 1,500m she finished an excellent tenth place, inside the top-15 automatic individual qualifiers for the All-Ireland finals. Amelie Kelly (St Finian’s College) had been running strongly alongside Siomha in the early stages but was very unlucky after a mid-race fall cost her time and places and she finished out of the top-15 automatic qualifying places. In the Junior girls 2,000m, Chloe Bell (St. Finian’s College) was also the victim of bad luck when a respiratory issue derailed her race, which was very unfortunate considering Chloe was looking very strong at the front of the pack when she was hampered by the effects. Loreto College’s Lily Walsh was involved in a very close fight for podium positions throughout the Intermediate Girls 3,000m race, eventually winning the sprint for second place to take silver and our first podium finish of the day. Ailbhe O’Farrell (St. Finian’s College) was competing in her final year in the Senior Girls 3,000m where she ran extremely well and finished out her schools cross country career with a twenty-first place finish, a fine result but unfortunately outside the automatic qualifying places for the All-Ireland finals.
Gareth Glennon (St. Finian’s) was always in contention for honours in the Minor Boys 2,000m race and had enough in reserve on the home straight to fight off some challengers to hold on to third place and earn a podium place for the bronze medal. In the Junior Boys 3,000m Antonio Bertolo (Colaiste Mhuire) ran a strong race from the start, slotting into third position after the sprint start and held on to that spot all the way to the finish line for his own trip to the podium to collect his bronze medal. Aaron Kenny (Mercy Kilbeggan) was never far behind and ensured his ticket to the All-Ireland finals was secured with an impressive eleventh place finish. The Colaiste Mhuire team in the Intermediate Boys 4,500m finished second team and will have a chance of chasing All-Ireland medals in Belfast. The team was led home by Cillian Galvin who is in his first year in the Intermediate category and he tackled the tough and hilly course with determination to finish a terrific ninth place. With great support from Oisin Clarke in fourteenth, and impressive runs from Daniel Horohoe and Morgan Isdell, and good team support and running by Cormac McGrath and Cian Hyland the team silver medals were secured.
The final event of the day was the Senior boys 5,500m where Jamie Wallace (Colaiste Mhuire) was simply too good for the opposition. He led the race from the gun and after the first kilometre he made the decision to quicken the pace and simply ran away from the field over the final 4k to win the Leinster title comfortably, ten years after another Mullingar Harriers athlete, Jack O’Leary, won the same event. Coming in behind Jamie was Matthew Molloy (St. Finian’s College) with an excellent effort but finished just outside the top-15 places. Despite good support from Conor Walsh and Luke Greene (Colaiste Mhuire), the Colaiste Mhuire team finished fifth, outside the top-3 automatic team qualifying places.
Overall a very successful day which has given us plenty more action to look forward to in Belfast [CW/TW/GD].
National Masters Record for Aidan O’Donoghue
The Scottish Indoor Combined Events took place at the Emirates Stadium in Glasgow last week-end. Adding to the great atmosphere was the fact that there was also senior competition taking place for athletes trying to gain qualification for the World Indoors later in the month, among them reigning Olympic 800m Champion, Keely Hodgkinson. Aidan O’Donoghue was entered in the Master Heptathlon and his training had gone well, so was expecting to perform well over the two days of competition. With personal bests in the pole vault, 60m hurdles and 60m sprint, he was on target for a very good points score. With further good points gained in the shot put, long jump and high jump, he needed 412 points for the last event to break the Irish National record in his age category. He was delighted to run another season’s best of 4 minutes 3.61 seconds in the 1,000m to give him 413 points and set a new Irish Masters National record of 2,998 points [AO’D].
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