Week ending Saturday 8th March
Euro qualifications for Aisling Lane and Matthew Glennon
The UK Racewalking 20k Championships were held early last Sunday morning at the NSC Bowl on the Isle of Man, at the 800m course developed especially for racewalking. The event was a World Athletics Calendar event, so times and performance are acceptable as qualification standards for all elite Championships in 2025. The Senior Men and Senior Women 20k races commenced before the wind and rain that was forecast for the afternoon arrived, to give cool but ideal conditions for endurance racing.
As a World Calendar event, top international panel racewalking judges had been invited to ensure all International standards were met. Matthew Glennon had to pace and race within himself as the strictly judged event meant that he had to have a continuous focus on smooth rhythm and safe racewalking technique at all times. He achieved this with an excellent opening 10k of 44;40 and an all clear from the judges. With this reassurance, Matthew pushed on to complete the second 10k even faster (44:29), to give a final finishing time of 1:29:09, which is almost a minute inside the European Team Championship standard and just over 20 seconds inside the European u/23 T&F “B” qualification standards set by Athletics Ireland. Matthew was also delighted to be the second finisher overall, with only the British Champion just ahead of him.
Showing a level of maturity way above her years, young Aisling Lane set about her task with total control and measured pacing lap by lap. She reached 10k in 51:13 (her second fastest ever 10k) and then had to keep increasing her efforts to maintain her pace as the laps got tougher and tougher on weary legs. Her goal was qualification for the European Team Championships in May in the Czech Republic but at 15km with the realisation that a European u/23 qualification standard was also achievable, she dug even deeper and finished with a very fast last 5k in 25 minutes exactly to give her a fantastic 20k debut time of 1:41:51, inside the standards for the European Team Championships and the European u/23 T&F.
This was two qualifying standards achieved in the one day and now Matthew and Aisling can look forward to representing Ireland at the Senior elite level this Summer with close to three months training time until then, so that they build for even better performances [ML].
Another team World Record for Brigid McCabe
Congratulations to Brigid McCabe who was part of the Irish masters o/70 women 4 x 400m relay team that set a new World Record of 6:29.93 at the Athletics Ireland T&F Live Meet in the NIA Dublin last Wednesday evening. Brigid ran the lead leg, setting up the team of Eileen O’Brien (Lucan Harriers AC), Carmel Ni Dhomhnaill (West Limerick AC) and Mags Glavey (Mayo AC) for success in their bid to break the World Record. This is the third time that Brigid has been part of an Irish masters team that has set a new World Record, following on from the 4 x 800m o/70 outdoor record set in July 2024 and the 4 x 800m o/65 outdoor record set in May 2024. A triple World Record holder in our midst in no mean feat! [GD].
Masters to the fore at the Leinster Indoors
The Leinster Indoor season got underway last Saturday when the Leinster u/20, Senior and Masters Indoors were held at the NIA Dublin. Mullingar had a small but enthusiastic squad in action.
Colm Walsh took it out hard in the masters 3,000m race walk and after fifteen tough laps where he never let up the pressure he was rewarded with gold in his master category, but better, his winning time of 14:54.74 was a new personal best and a new Championship record by nearly 35 seconds, so he was naturally absolutely delighted after the race.
Aidan O’Donoghue had an incredibly busy day of competition in six events. Beginning with the masters 60m hurdles which he won, he followed this up with bronze in the masters 200m later in the day, and in between won gold in the masters pole vault, silver in the masters high jump and silver in the masters shot putt. This was in addition to teaming up with Claire Lennon Gavin, Gerard Gavin and Linda Cunningham in the masters mixed 4 x 200m relay where the team battled hard but finished out of the medal places, though fifth place was a very creditable result.
Also competing over the individual 200m was Claire Lennon Gavin who finished an excellent fourth place in her masters 200m, and Mohammad Al Bashir who lined up in one of five heats in the senior 200m, where the competition was fierce, but he gave a very good account to finish fourth in his heat and even though he didn’t qualify for the final he was very satisfied with his performance.
Gerard Gavin competed in the masters 3,000m and despite his efforts in the earlier mixed relay, pushed hard throughout the race and was very unlucky to finish just out of the medal places in fourth, missing bronze by a very narrow margin. Linda Cunningham too had to shake of the efforts of the mixed relay and was very pleased to finish second in the master 400m and earn a Leinster silver medal.
Meanwhile, over in the field events, another Mullingar athlete that had a very busy schedule was Paddy Boyhan who was very happy to win triple Leinster gold thanks to his winning performances in the masters high jump, masters long jump and masters triple jump. Finally, rounding off a good day for Mullingar was Tom Walsh who simply dominated in the masters weight for distance, winning gold in his master category by a very big margin.
We returned to the NIA Dublin on Sunday for the Leinster Juvenile Indoor Relays. With five heats in the u/14 girls 4 x 200m relay, only the six fastest teams across the five heats would qualify for the final, so the competition was fierce. Clodagh Keane, Chloe Bell, Liadan Gavin and Amelie G Kelly made no mistake though and came through on the final leg to win their heat in a time that was fast enough to qualify them for the final and even though they gave it their all in the final, they finished out of the medals but top marks for effort. The u/16 boys 4 x 200m had a straight final and the Mullingar team of Daniel Horohoe, Evan Nohilly, Morgan Isdell and Scott Cogan put in a great team effort against some top class opposition but despite their efforts, finished out of the medals in fourth place [GD].
Roma Ostia Half Marathon
The 50th edition of the Roma Ostia Half Marathon took place on the outskirts of Rome last Sunday morning. Among the large field of 12,800 runners was Sharon O’Dowd, flying the flag for Mullingar Harriers. On a dry and warm morning where temperatures reached 18degC in a light breeze, runners tracked a route southeast out of the city and finished near the beaches of Ostia. With a point-to-point route, the course takes a slight downhill drop in the closing kilometre. That, added to the breeze coming off the coast, was a welcome relief to all runners. Sharon expressed herself to be very satisfied with a finishing time of 1 hour 40 minutes 6 seconds [MO’S].
Naas 10 Mile
The annual Naas 10 Mile attracted a large field of just under 800 runners last Sunday morning. In dry and overcast conditions with a light breeze, Timmy Murphy was always to the fore and had the finishing pace to pull away from two challengers in the final 500m to win by 6 seconds in a time of 53:24. Elizabeth Carr placed thirteenth overall and was a convincing winner of the women race in 58:33, and Mary Stuart capped the perfect outing for Mullingar when winning her master category in a time of 1:08:40 [MO’S].
Napa Valley Half Marathon
While in California for work, Kris Foster took the opportunity to compete in the Napa Valley Half Marathon early last Saturday morning. Held in the Bothe-Napa Valley State Park, on a challenging course with hills, streams and rocks, in the heart of California wine country, the course was run over two loops in very pleasant conditions of mid-teen degrees Celsius. Kris was delighted to finish well up in twenty eighth place of nearly 3,000 finishers in an excellent time of 1:14:55, his best time for the distance by over 4 minutes, which will set him up very nicely for the year ahead [IMcC].
Sympathy
Finally, the Executive and members of Mullingar Harriers wish to extend sincere sympathy to the Bell family on the recent death of George Bell’s sister, Louie Pearson (née Bell) in Edenderry, Co. Offaly. Older members will remember George as one the founding members of Mullingar Harriers and it’s great to see members of the Bell family still involved with the Club.
Check the Club’s website at www.mullingarharriers.com or its Facebook page for all the latest news.
PRO
