A clean sweep for Drogheda in adult races

SUNDAY’S Novice Cross-Country Championships attracted a large number of quality athletes and it turned out to be a great occasion for the Drogheda & District club as they supplied the first two finishers in both the Ladies and Men’s races.

Perfect weather conditions and a fast, flat course meant track runners were in with a real chance this year.

In the Ladies 3k Michelle Hughes moved to the head of the field early on, closely followed by clubmate Orla O’Connor, and these two and a group of three other athletes soon had clear ground on the rest of the field.

Hughes pushed hard at the start of the last lap, but try as she might she couldn’t shake off O’Connor who was having a great run. In the home straight O’Connor picked her moment well to surge past Hughes to take the title by a mere second at the finish.

Backed up by the strong running Roisin Coade and Sinead Weldon, this quartet secured the much-coveted team prize by just two points from a very strong North East Runners team.

Drogheda & District’s second team of Barbara Byrne, Mary Lindsey, Jane Glynn and Phillipa Donnelly combined well to take the third place team medals and others who ran well were Wendy White and Helen Dillon.

In the Men’s event, pre-race favourites Stephen Kelly and Brian Martin took up the running right from the gun and they opened up a gap of almost a minute on the third-placed runner.

With six hard kilometres of hard running behind them this pair had the large crowd enthralled as to who would be the winner. Coming down the home straight with less than the width of a razor blade between them, Kelly found an extra ounce of energy to dip on the line and take the title by the narrowest of margins.

Not far behind, Kelly’s older brother Johnny was having a great battle with clubmate Stephen Duggan and just held him at bay at the finish. These four made up the winning men’s team with a total of 16 points.

Further down the field the battle for second team place was on in earnest. Kieran McGrath was having a terrific run as he led home Shane Larkin, Colm Reilly and John Hough to take the silver medals by the slinmest of margins.

Others who ran well were John Reilly, Brian Pentony, Paul Reilly and Eoin McGinn.

The future of Drogheda & District AC, the club’s juveniles, were also in action, running in the evenage races.

In the U-14 boys race, twins Peter and Daniel Aylward finished in eighth and ninth places, while Cormac Canning showed everyone a clean pair of heels as he sped round the course to win his U-16 race. Harry Caffrey ran well to place fifth. Ben Egan was 11th and Evan O’Connor and Cian Martin Bohan both ran well to finish in 12th and 15th respectively, with Drogheda & District winning gold team medals in this age group.

Sam O’Neill led home Drogheda’s winning quartet in the Boys U-18 team event, finishing in third place, with Robert Caffrey, James Nolan and Sonny Doyle all close behind and Leo Mclean and Ronan Devine running well also.

In the Girls Under-16 race Moya McCabe, Abigail Tegart and Margareta Kafe all ran well to make up the winning girls team. while the club’s sole runner in the Girls Under-14 race was Kate O’Reilly who finished in 12th place.

David Walsh made a welcome return to running after injury when placing 28th in the recent Business Houses cross-country race in Castleknock, with Conor Cooney 86th and Jim Nolan 95th. In the Ladies race Nuala Reilly was first in her category over two miles.

Two of D&D’s finest took part in Sunday’s three-quarter marathon in Athlone, with Liam Callaghan and Edel Smyth using the race to prepare for the upcoming Dublin Marathon. Callaghan ran 2:55 and Smyth got round the course in 3:17.

Sunday’s Run With Catherina 10k held in Cavan proved to be a good day for some of the Drogheda & District athletes, with Nuala Reilly placing first in her category in a speedy 44:17, Conor Cooney (44:52) third in his category and Martina O’Connor Dyas running 50:21 for the distance.

In the shorter 5k event, Jackser Reilly ran a decent 20:54 which earned him second place in his category.

With just a week to go to the trials for the Home Countries Cross-Country Championships, Mary Leech scorched round the Oldbridge Parkrun in a fabulous 19:07. Leech has hit a rich vein of form at just the right time and will be fancied to make the Irish ladies team.

Pat O’Grady put in a good performance when finishing second overall at the Malahide Parkrun in a fast 17:08 and both he and Nuala Reilly will also be hoping to earn a place on an Irish team if all goes to plan.