National bronze for Lily Walsh
Mullingar Harriers club notes
Day 1 of the National Juvenile T&F was held last Sunday in Tullamore, where it was warm and dry by the afternoon, perfect conditions for the middle distance events.
Lily Walsh competed in the 800m U14 where she had a really great run and was absolutely delighted with the result. It was a tactical race with a lot of jostling for position throughout and up to 600m it was quite slow with lots of movement in the pack, but Lily kept right in the thick of the action and held her ground near the front to avoid being boxed in.
When the final move came at 200m, Lily was in the top three that broke away and, racing hard with a furious sprint to the line, she finished third behind the two girls who were first and second at the National Indoors 800m in April.
The steeplechase is rightly regarded as one of the toughest track events, but Ailbhe O’Farrell was up to the task and put in a terrific effort in the 3,000m steeplechase U18. Expertly negotiating the wooden barriers and water jump over the seven and a half laps and running nearly 20 seconds faster than she ran in Leinster, Ailbhe finished strongly in fifth place, an excellent result in a national final.
Midland Inter-Counties T&F
The second Midland Inter-Counties T&F of the year takes place this Friday at 6.30pm in Tullamore. This is similar to the event we attended in May, but this time there are more ages and some different events. There are events for girls and boys U9 to U16, including 4x100m relays (U9 to 16), shot (U12 to 15), turbo javelin (U9, U10, U12), javelin (U14), 400m (U9 to 14) and 400m (U16).
Competition closing dates
Entries for the National ‘B’ T&F and day 2 of the National Juvenile T&F next weekend close this week (Wed 10), so make sure you have your entry submitted in time.
The National ‘B’ (Sat 20) is for anyone who did not qualify in any event for the National T&F Finals and there are a limited number of events for under 12 to under 16. Day 2 (Sun 21) is for walks, 100m, 400m and 3,000m. If you qualified automatically from the Leinsters, you should have received an email from Athletics Ireland inviting you to pay for your entry. Anyone else using the open entry system has to be entered by the club, so check with Greg that you have been entered.
Rhode 5k
Round 7 of the Offaly 5k Series, the Rhode AC 5k, took place last Friday evening. Local showers did not reach the Offaly village, and runners were treated to a dry and at times sunny evening with a light breeze.
A looped course to the south of the village took runners over Rhode Bridge and followed country roads before turning over Toberdaly Bridge just before 3k and down to the Grand Canal Greenway before emerging back at Rhode Bridge for the last 800m dash to the finish line opposite the local primary school.
The scenic route was well marshalled and with all roads closed to vehicular traffic for the duration of the race, this gave all 267 runners a safe and pleasant course.
Mullingar Harriers had nine representatives. Eddie Newman was first home and won his category with a time of 18:28. Next in was Orlaith Flanagan delighted with her personal best of 19:54, her first sub-20-minute 5k. Caroline Mullen showed steely determination to place third in her master category with 22:35.
Michael O’Sullivan with 23:34 and Liadan Gavin with 23:40, were just ahead of the fast-finishing Brigid McCabe on 23:41 earning her second place in her master category. Claire Lennon (23:45), Michael Purdue (24:10) and Martin Mullen (24:37) completed the Mullingar group. The women team of Orlaith, Caroline, Brigid and Claire finished fourth Club, just missing out on a podium spot by only a few places.
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