A: Grange, Mullingar, Co. Westmeath, Ireland | E: info@mullingarharriers.com

World Masters Indoors 2023 (26th to 31st Mar)

 

Part of a very big squad of over 140 master athletes from Ireland, one of the biggest National squads to take part, Sean McMullin and Aidan O’Donoghue competed at the World Masters Indoors in Torun, Poland. Sean is no stranger to competing at this level but for Aidan it was his first time competing at World level.

Sean got his campaign underway with the 3,000m Race Walk on the track on Monday 27th March. The experienced athlete that he is and knowing his opposition well, Sean went out with determination from the start and set the early pace. The race quickly came down to a straight battle between Sean and an Italian athlete. At the halfway point though Sean had to surrender the lead but dug deep to hold his pace and form to finish in second place and was delighted to win a World silver medal. Sean could relax and recover for the 10k Road Walk on Friday 31st March, which was a combined race of two age groups, so forty six men toed the line. Race walking is a very difficult discipline and competitors have to be extremely careful every step of the way and are under the ever-watchful eyes of the judges. As a measure, nine men were disqualified but Sean drove on and though incurring a single warning, he was delighted to finish in second place with a season best time and added to his medal haul with another silver medal to round off a great Championships.

Aidan competed on Sunday 26th March in the Javelin where he threw very close to his personal best and was very satisfied to finish a very creditable twelfth place in his first World Masters event. Aidan returned to action on Monday 27th March for the High Jump, again competing near his best to finish twelfth in the World. The Javelin and High Jump though were only warm-up events for Aidan’s primary focus of the Championships, the Pentathlon on Wednesday 29th March. The standard at this level is huge but Aidan settled nicely into the competition from the start and was performing right up to his expectations but unfortunately he picked up an injury and faded a bit over the last two events to finish down the field but still not far off his personal best points for the event, so has to be very satisfied with his performance against the best in the World.

Very well done to Sean and Aidan for flying the flag for Mullingar Harriers on the World stage.