Mullingar Harriers host Spring T&F Meeting

Mullingar Harriers notes

The Irish Universities T&F took place at the superb new Dundrum South Dublin AC track last Friday and Saturday, the first competition to be held at the new track in beautiful scenic surroundings in the foothills of the Dublin Mountains. Mullingar had five members competing for their colleges, and they won six medals between them.

Eoin Quinn (DCU) won his heat of the 800m with ease on Friday afternoon to qualify for Saturday’s final. The final went out fast from the gun, going through the bell in 51 seconds, with Eoin nicely positioned in fourth place, setting the race up for an exciting finish. Going down the back straight for the final time, Eoin kept working hard and finishing fast he had enough in reserve in the home straight to bring himself into third place and the bronze medal.

Contesting the extremely competitive 200m heats on Friday afternoon, Charles Okafor (DCU) finished fourth, unlucky to just miss a place in the final by only a few hundredths of a second. Charles returned to the track for the 4x100m relay on Saturday afternoon, running a terrific third leg and helping DCU to a runaway victory to win another Irish Universities gold medal and earn valuable team points for DCU.

Colin Smith (DCU) ran in the 1,500m heats on Friday afternoon finishing comfortably in fourth place to qualify automatically for Saturday’s final but didn’t feel one hundred present warming up, so wisely decided to sit the final out rather then risk injury so early in the season.

Moving to the 3,000m race walk, Mullingar had two members in action, Oisin Lane (UL) and Matthew Glennon (DCU). Oisin took the pace out fast right from the start, quickly pulling away and only had Matthew for company for some time. Both pushed on and were simply too strong for the opposition, but Oisin had the edge and slowly pulled clear to dominate the race and with a faultless display in this difficult technical event won well in a new UL record of 11:49:46, followed home by Matthew in second also having a great race.

The day ended with the 4x400m relay where Charles Okafor stepped up a distance to run the first leg for DCU and Eoin Quinn dropped down to run the second leg. Charles ran a fine race over the unfamiliar distance to hand over in second place by only a tiny margin. Eoin dropped back to third place on the back straight but made his move on the second bend to close on the leaders before unleashing his customary fast finish in the home straight to retake the lead for DCU, and the team went on to win easily.

In the team competition, DCU finished first and UL second, assisted by the points won by the Mullingar Harriers athletes competing for their Colleges.

Mullingar Spring Juvenile T&F

The Mullingar Harriers Spring T&F Meeting last Sunday gave our younger members aged 8 to 13 years an opportunity to compete in sprint, middle distance, long jump and javelin, covering the essential run-jump-throw skills needed by developing athletes.

We also had an u/16 girls mile and u/16 boys mile, with trophies to be won, which should encourage our younger members to aspire to challenging for in the years ahead.

Over 100 competed in the 50 events scheduled, which is a big ask and we were delighted that a big team of coaches and parents assisted on the day to make it happen. Medals won or not, the juvenile members had fun and will have learned a few things about both themselves and T&F competitions, which will encourage them to compete over the coming seasons.

Sincere thanks to those that brought buns, cakes and other goodies and those that manned the tables that were heaving under the weight of the fare on offer! The children were delighted to be able to take some snacks and refuel in between their events.

The top three in each event were:

Girls u/9 – 60m 1. Maisie Walsh, 2. Rachel Robinson, 3. Saoirse McDermott;

300m 1. Maisie Walsh, 2. Rachel Robinson, 3. Alicia Aghey;

long jump 1. Maisie Walsh, 2. Rachel Robinson, 3. Saoirse McDermott;

turbo javelin 1. Saoirse McDermott, 2. Maisie Walsh, 3. Rachel Robinson.

Girls u/10 – 60m 1. Lucy O’Connor, 2. Lyla Lennon Currill, 3. Muireann Feery;

500m 1. Helen McGrath, 2. Muireann Feery, 3. Roisin Keane;

long jump 1. Muireann Feery, 2. Lauryn Smith, 3. Lucy O’Connor;

turbo javelin 1. Leah Ford, 2. Roisin Keane & Serena Stenson, 3. Lucy O’Connor.

Girls u/11 – 60m 1. Aoife Dunne, 2. Lily Archbold, 3. Amelie Downes;

600m 1. Penny Bohan, 2. Katie Bohan, 3. Aoife Dunne;

long jump 1. Lily Archbold, 2. Saoirse Peters, 3. Aoife Dunne;

turbo javelin 1. Amelie Downes, 2. Saoirse Peters, 3. Penny Bohan.

Girls u/12 – 60m 1. Clodagh Keane, 2. Chloe Bell, 3. Liadan Gavin;

600m 1. Chloe Bell, 2. Clodagh Keane, 3. Amelie Kelly;

long jump 1. Chloe Bell, 2. Clodagh Keane, 3. Ellen Gallagher;

turbo javelin 1. Chloe Bell, 2. Clodagh Keane, 3. Liadan Gavin.

Girls u/13 – 80m 1. Isla Brennan, 2. Ruby Brennan, 3. Lily Walsh;

600m 1. Lily Walsh, 2. Ruby Brennan, 3. Emily Tully;

long jump 1. Lucy Mulvany;

turbo javelin 1. Lily Walsh, 2. Ruby Brennan, 3. Isla Brennan.

Girls u/14 – 80m 1. Beibhinn O’Reilly, 2. Saoirse Farrell, 3. Hui Fen Bartley;

800m 1. Beibhinn O’Reilly;

long jump 1. Beibhinn O’Reilly, 2. Hui Fen Bartley, 3. Saoirse Farrell;

javelin 1. Hui Fen Bartley, 2. Saoirse Farrell, 3. Beibhinn O’Reilly.

Girls u/16 – mile 1. Tianna O’Leary, 2. Eleanor Kiernan, 3. Lily Walsh.

Boys u/9 – 60m 1. Ruadhan Murphy, 2. Eddie Collins, 3. Conor Malone;

300m 1. Ruadhan Murphy, 2. Conor Malone, 3. Liam Reynolds;

long jump 1. Conor Malone, 2. Ruadhan Murphy, 3. Eoghan Savage & Kealen Pegley;

turbo javelin 1. Leon Rogers, 2. Conor Malone, 3. Charlie Furey.

Boys u/10 – 60m 1. Andrew Bradley, 2. Alex McLaughlin, 3. Fionn Donoghue;

500m 1. Mel Bohan, 2. Donagh Burke, 3. Alex McLaughlin;

long jump 1. Gearoid Doyle, 2. Senan Clinton, 3. Alex McLaughlin;

turbo javelin 1. Mel Bohan, 2. John Geelon, 3. Olly Wright.

Boys u/11 – 60m 1. Aaron Robinson, 2. Daniel Cummins, 3. Conor Gavin;

600m 1. Daniel Cummins, 2. Conor Gavin, 3. Aaron Robinson;

long jump 1. Conor Gavin, 2. Cillian Gavin, 3. Aaron Robinson;

turbo javelin 1. Peter Fitzpatrick, 2. Aaron Robinson, 3. Conor Gavin.

Boys u/12 – 60m 1. Andrew Feery, 2. Seamus Clarke, 3. Donnacha Doyle;

600m 1. Harry Flanagan, 2. Alex Sochanski, 3. Cian O’Neill;

long jump 1. Donnacha Doyle, 2. Cian O’Neill, 3. Harry Flanagan;

turbo javelin 1. Donnacha Doyle, 2. Andrew Feery, 3. Luke Somers.

Boys u/13 – 80m 1. Aonghus O’Reilly, 2. Louis Kiernan, 3. Oisin Clarke;

600m 1. Louis Kiernan, 2. Aonghus O’Reilly, 3. Oisin Clarke;

turbo javelin 1. Aonghus O’Reilly, 2. Louis Kiernan, 3. Oisin Clarke.

Boys u/14 – 80m 1. Zack O’Leary, 2. Dylan Boland, 3. Ciaran Mulvany;

800m 1. Scott Cogan, 2. Zack O’Leary, 3. Daniel Horohoe;

long jump 1. Ciaran Mulvany, 2. Daniel Horohoe;

javelin 1. Ciaran Mulvany, 2. Zack O’Leary, 3. Cormac McGrath.

Boys u/16 – mile 1. Matthew Molloy, 2. Conor Walsh, 3. Conor Geoghegan.

Pat Finnerty 5k League Returns to Belvedere

After an absence of several years, the Pat Finnerty Memorial 5k League returns to Belvedere for the first three Wednesdays in May, beginning next week.

The best two of three times count for the league, so you only have to run two of three rounds, though we’d encourage everyone to run all three.

Entry is €25 for three or two nights, but if you can only run the final night, the entry fee reduces to €15 for the single race.

All proceeds will go to the North Westmeath Hospice, so we’re asking everyone to sign up and support that worthy cause. There is an option to donate to the hospice when submitting your entry and we’ll also take donations on the night for anyone that wants to give more.

There will be prizes for top 3 men and women in the league, and lots of spot prizes too. The Pat Finnerty Perpetual Trophy will be presented to the first man and the first woman in the League.

Online entries are now open and can be accessed through the Event Calendar on the top banner of the Athletics Ireland website or using the link on the homepage of the Mullingar Harriers website.

London Marathon

The headline after last Sunday’s London Marathon was Kevin Kiptum running the second fastest time in history to win in 2 hours 1 minute 25 seconds, shattering the course record, in an astonishing performance that at one stage threatened to break Eluid Kipchoge’s World best.

Kiptum tired towards the end and finished 18 seconds short of Kipchoge’s record, but that aside, Mullingar thoughts were on how Kris Foster would fare among the more than 53,000 mere mortals taking on the 42.2km classic distance.

The three-hour mark is the standard all men want to better in a marathon and going into the London Marathon, that was the clear goal for Kris. It’s easy to get carried away in the excitement of running with thousands of others and go off too fast, but Kris kept a cool head and sticking firmly to his race plan and drawing on all the miles and miles put in at training over many months, he kept to his plan and put in the hard yards needed in London, especially the last few painful miles, and was delighted to finish in 2 hours 57 minutes19 seconds, well under his pre-race target.

Maynooth 10k

The Maynooth 10k and 5k took place last Sunday morning in cool but dry calm conditions, perfect for racing. Organised by the parent teacher association of Maynooth Education Campus, the race was a fund-raiser for the upkeep of the school’s playing fields and facilities.

The 10k attracted an excellent entry of 430. Mary Stuart raced home in 42 minutes 11 seconds to win her master category, followed by Joan Hickson (45:22) and Richie Kelly close behind (46:04).

A total of 260 ran the 5k where Alex Sheridan finished in 20 minutes 42 seconds, just missing a prize as he placed fourth junior man.

National 10k Update

Last Friday, Athletics Ireland and the event organiser Dublin City Harriers repeated its apology to all participants for the unforeseen circumstances that led to the Great Ireland Run (incorporating the National 10k Championship) being only approximately 8.5k.

Following discussion and consultation, Athletics Ireland has decided to award medals and placings in all categories for the National 10k Championship and the race result will be recorded with an asterisk to highlight the shorter distance of the event.

This means that Eddie Newman, Mary Stuart and Maura Dervin will receive their master category medals after all, which is excellent and well deserved, regardless of the shorter race distance.

Sympathy

Finally, the Executive and members of Mullingar Harriers wish to express sincere sympathy to Fionn Gallagher and the entire Gallagher family on the death last week of his wife, Kathleen. Fionn was very actively involved in Mullingar Harriers in their early years, as was Kathleen too, and all five of their sons also ran with the Club.