A piece of athletics history for Aisling and Oisin Lane

Mullingar Harriers notes

With yellow weather alerts, the forecast for the World Athletics Tour Racewalking event in St. Anne’s Park, Raheny last Sunday week (14 Dec) looked very bleak indeed, as visitors from 19 countries coming from as far away as Asia, Africa and both North and South America arrived in Dublin to take on a variety of continental racewalkers from the top European nations.

This now annual event incorporates the Irish National Race Walking Championships, with seniors racing 20k, u/20 and masters racing 10k, together with a selection of open juvenile competitions. The programme this year included a Marathon Racewalk for the first time, so the programme started earlier than usual and also led to the standard senior 20k races starting at the later time of 12 noon. This later start proved a blessing in disguise, as the rains cleared but still left a damp surface with the potential to produce slow times.

As a consequence of his great performances in racewalk earlier in 2025 that led him to the World Championships in Tokyo, Oisin Lane is automatically qualified for the European T&F Championships next year in Birmingham, England. This allowed him to drop down to the shorter 20k distance. For the senior men and women, another new element was a combined start for both the 20k and half marathon (21.1k) distances. So, Oisín was joined on the start line by his younger sister Aisling Lane and his fellow clubmate Matthew Glennon. When the gun went so did Oisin.

With many athletes aiming for the longer half marathon distance and therefore starting a little more cautiously, Oisin had his full focus on winning the National 20k title and therefore went straight to the front with focus and a relentlessly consistent pace. As the pack jostled for positions, Oisin kept increasing his lead through the key markers of 5k, 10k and 15k.

Amongst the pack, Matthew was having an extended battle with his main rivals for the Irish championship medals. Meanwhile, Aisling was walking close to her personal best through 5k and 10k, but soon after this she slowed a bit due to the cold and damp conditions. However, her rivalry with the athletes from the other nations had drawn her well clear of all her Irish competition. Meanwhile, Oisin raced on smoothly and confidently and was the first to cross the 20k line and win the National Senior title. Feeling strong, Oisín continued on and held off the fast finishing Eduardo Camarate of Portugal to also win the World Tour Half Marathon event, his second gold medal of the day.

Back in the field, the National silver medal position had got beyond Matthew, but in the head to head for bronze, his main rival was forced to concede to Matthew's improved technique and dropped out. This left Matthew isolated as he fought to overcome the fatigue of these battles and the actual race distance but he held on bravely to claim the National bronze medal from yet another fast finishing Dublin rival. Not too far back, Aisling was also working hard but by the last quarter of the race she managed to lap her now tiring main rival and so could work on maintaining a comfortable rhythm to the end of the 20k and win her first National Senior title (while still only 19).

A unique piece of history was made, as according to the experts, going back to the first Irish Championships in 1873, Oisin, Aisling and their father, Michael, are the first “father, son and daughter” combination to win a National Championship Senior title in the same event. So, in a historic year for Mullingar Harriers, their athletes continue to make unique National athletics history too.

The Irish Road Racewalking Championships also included the National 10k u/20 Championships. The line up for this included John Glennon. While John has won several titles, including the SIAB Schools International, he knew that he was facing massive competition from the up and coming Seamus Clarke who won a silver medal in the European u/18 Championships. Wisely, John choose to walk his own pace and settled into a hard, strong and steady pace that guaranteed him a National u/20 silver medal and a big new personal best of 46 minutes 35 seconds. From the National Road Championships, Mullingar athletes “walked” away with 2 gold, 1 silver and 1 bronze medal, not a bad finish to 2025.

Along with the World Athletics World Tour events and the Irish National Championships, the event included several open juvenile competitions and competing in the underage 5k was Daniel Glennon. Having won medals over 3k at both the SIAB Schools International and the Irish Juvenile Championships, Daniel was moving up to the longer 5k (while still only u/17). Daniel walked with the focus and maturity of a much older athlete to record an excellent time of 23 minutes 17 seconds to finish in second place, splitting two top young Greek racewalkers who were seeking qualification standards for next year’s European u/18 Championships. As Daniel left the best of Irish and British racewalkers way behind him, he too can look forward to achieving the required standard for the European u/18 next year if he gets the right training and the right competitions.

Also racing was Gareth Glennon, who took part in the u/16 open 3k, even though he is only u/14. He too finished second in 14 minutes 48 seconds, a very good time for one so young [ML].

Indoor 1,000m record for Aimee Wallace

Aimee Wallace ended 2025 in style with an Irish u/20 indoor 1,000m record of 2 minutes 47.76 seconds at the Track &Field Live Meeting #2 at the National Indoor Arena in Dublin last Wednesday evening, bettering her own record of 2:48.40 set this time last year. Aimee went out hard from the gun, tracking the pacemaker, Niamh Murray (Bray Runners AC), a 400m specialist who took Aimee though 700m right on target and over the final 300m Aimee maintained the pace to win by a long way and set a new National u/20 record, which sets her up perfectly for indoor Championships in the New Year [GD].

Membership for 2026

The Club’s online membership system is open for everyone (except those aged 9, 10 11 and 12 years of age) to renew their membership online for 2026. It’s important to renew as soon as possible so you are insured to train at the Club and of course to enter events in January like the Leinster Intermediate and Masters cross country and Juvenile cross country relays, the National Indoor Games, and the many road races that will take place over the new year period. Memberships for the youngest members will be taken at the open day on Saturday 10th January and cannot be done online.

Open day for registrations in 2026

We’ll be holding an open day at the Club on Saturday January 10 when membership for 2026 for 9, 10, 11 and 12 year old girls and boys will be taken and they’ll return to training on Tuesday 13. Membership for these young girls and boys will be taken on a

first come first served basis and when the groups are filled, we’ll take no more. A change in 2026 is that unfortunately, we cannot accept membership from 8 year olds because we simply don’t have the coaches needed to manage this age.

An important rule introduced in 2023 and enforced every year since is that everyone had to take part in certain Club organised events during the year or they will not be allowed to register again for the following year. We’ll be enforcing this rule again in 2026, so if your child never competed for Mullingar Harriers during 2025, please don’t look to renew their membership in 2026 as it will be refused.

Sympathy

Finally, the executive and members of the Club wish to express sincere sympathy to the Troy family on the recent death of their father, Paddy, in Ballynacarrigy. All the Troys were members of Mullingar Harriers at some stage.

Check the Club’s website at www.mullingarharriers.com or its Facebook page for all the latest news.

PRO