Lily Walsh successful with Irish team in London

The Celtic Cross Country Championships were held at London's infamous Parliament Hill last Saturday and Mullingar Harriers were represented in both the boys and girls races.

Typically comprising of teams from Ireland, Scotland and Wales, the race piggybacked on the Home Nations Championships, a competition between England, Scotland and Wales. The u17 boys took on the challenge first where very muddy, wet conditions added to the already difficult hilly course. Racing 6,000m over four laps provided a tough test but nothing too daunting for Cillian Galvin, making his international debut for Ireland. The end results showed a very close scoring team competition, where the Irish u17 team emerged eventual winners.

Cillian, running with the Ireland Development team, packed well with his Irish team mates from start to finish, and was unlucky to finish just off the podium by a narrow margin with the fourth placed team. Also covering 6,000m, the u17 girls race was run in conjunction with the u20 ladies race, adding an unnecessary additional level of competition for Lily Walsh. But the Irish girls rose to the challenge and Lily, along with her three Ireland u17 teammates, each finished ahead of all their Scottish and Welsh opponents, winning the Celtic Championships. So dominant were Ireland in this race that the Ireland Development team also made the podium finishing in second place. As under 16 athletes, both Cillian and Lily are eligible to contend for this Irish team again next year, which emphasises the high standard both athletes have already accomplished at such a young age.

Congratulations to Cillian on a successful first outing in an Irish vest, and to Lily on her international team victory. It is always an honour and privilege to represent one's country, and an achievement that's hard earned but highly respected.

Mullingar on the European Stage

A second place finish at the National Senior Cross Country in a wet and muddy Derry last November earned the Mullingar Harriers senior men team a place in the prestigious European Champion Clubs Cross Country in Albufeira, Portugal last Sunday where the team put in excellent performances on a really tough course that they all admitted after really tested them to their limits.

The race distance was 9,280m made up of five laps of a hilly technical course run in part on packed sand, grass, and woodland trails with several sharp turns and some obstacles including steep high man-made clay ramps and a short section with logs to hurdle over for good measure, so a big test of focus and concentration as well as physical and mental endurance.

There was a maximum of four per team to start, with three to score in the team competition. John Ryan led the Mullingar men out from the gun followed by Ross Killalea, Vinny Connolly and Kevin Moore packing in close order behind as they headed out on the first of the five laps.

As the race progressed, the order never changed as John slowly increased the distance from his teammates and led them home to finish strongly in the middle of the pack. Only a few places behind, Ross and Vinny worked hard together for a lot of the early race until Ross opened a gap on Vinny on lap four, but Vinny never stopped fighting and pushed on to the end, followed in by Kevin only a few places further back.

With barely two minutes separating the four men, it was a great race to watch for the small group of Mullingar supporters, giving them plenty to cheer about, as they criss-crossed the course to urge the men on. Though exhausted after the race all four admitted that performing on the big stage was a great experience and one, they’ll remember for a long time.

Also, in Albufeira, we had two reserves and though they couldn’t run in the senior men race, Ian McCormack and Conleth Mullen toed the line for an open 4k race, which took them over one small lap and two big laps of the challenging course. Both men ran extremely well and were delighted with the shared experience of attending the European event in Portugal [GD].

Rás na hEireann

A small contingent of Mullingar Harriers made the journey to Dunleer in Louth on Sunday morning for the annual Rás na hEireann cross country. The course was hilly, wet and mucky which lead to exceptionally challenging conditions for our young athletes.

Ciaran Fitzpatrick was in action in the u-9 boys 400m race, and despite a heavy fall on the downhill section of the course, he finished the race with a smile on his face. The u-11 girls 1,000m race was very competitive, and our Mullingar girls were mixing it up the front from the very start. Cara Hickey shared the lead for most of the race and finished in a deserved second place. Meabh Doyle put in a great performance to finish strongly in fourth place. Sophie Whitelaw and Cliodhna Fitzpatrick both battled hard all the way to finish in 8th and 10th positions, respectively. The Mullingar girls combining to take home the 1st team prize.

Robert Bohan was in the mix from the start of the u-11 boys’ race, and he fought hard over the final straight to finish in 5th place. Joe Hickey also ran a fine race, finishing with a strong sprint. Olly Loughry was in action in the u-13 boys 1500m race, and he worked hard to finish in 9th place. (SW)

Aidan O’Donoghue

Aidan O’Donoghue competed at the Scottish Masters Indoors in Glasgow last Sunday and was very happy to take home two gold and one bronze medal after a long day of competition. He won the 60m hurdles and pole vault and placed third in the high jump. He was unlucky to miss the 200m final by the narrowest of margins having run so well in his heat but was still more than satisfied to win three medals after such a long day of competition [AO’D].

Rathcoffey 10k

The annual Rathcoffey GAA 10k took place on Saturday morning in bright and dry conditions, with a light breeze. 351 runners took to the start line at the GAA grounds, and the course brought them through country roads around the outskirts of the village before returning to the GAA pitch for a 400-meter dash to the finish line along a well marshalled course. Five athletes from Mullingar Harriers took part. First home was James Keegan who finished 13th overall in a time of 34:10. He was closely followed by his training partner Kedagh Geoghegan who was 19th in a time of 36:06. Criona Reid had a very fine run finishing in 41:42 to win her category, with Marie Louise Johnston covering the course in 45:23, sufficient to finish 3rd in her category. Joan Hickson completed the Mullingar interest finishing in 46:37. (MoS).

Super Valu Trim 10 miles

In our report on the Super Valu Trimm 10-mile last week we omitted two further Mullingar Harriers athletes, Catherine Gavin who completed the distance in 1:31.35 and Avril Kane who ran 1:31.34. Also, a correction on Sinead Campbell’s time which should have stated 1:31.55. This means we had a total of 33 runners in the field of 1,880 runners in the race. (MoS)

Sympathy

The executive and members of the club wish to express sincere sympathy to Ken, Sinead and Sophie Whitelaw and the extended Whitelaw family on the death of Ken’s father Paddy. May he rest in peace.

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