A piece of athletics history for Ballymore siblings

With yellow weather alerts, the forecast for the World Athletics Tour Racewalking event in St Anne’s Park, Raheny last Sunday week (December 14) looked bleak, 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, U20 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 the Ballymore man 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 Mullingar Harriers 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 a fast finishing Dublin rival.

Not too far back, Aisling was also working hard and 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 when the first Irish National Championships were held in 1873, Oisin, Aisling and their father, Michael, are the first “father, son and daughter” combination to win a National Senior Championship title in the same event. So, in a historic year for Mullingar Harriers, the club's athletes continue to make unique national athletics history too.

The Irish Road Racewalking Championships also included the National 10k U20 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 U18 Championships. Wisely, John choose to walk his own pace and settled into a hard, strong and steady pace that guaranteed him a national U20 silver medal and a big new personal best of 46 minutes 35 seconds.

From the National Road Championships, Mullingar Harriers athletes “walked” away with two gold medals, one silver and one bronze medal, not a bad finish to 2025.