O’Grady on top of the world!

DROGHEDA & District athlete Pat O’Grady is celebrating on the other side of the globe this week after capturing a gold medal in the World Masters Championships in Daegu, South Korea, on Sunday.

Running as part of the Irish Men’s cross-country team, O’Grady put in a terrific run to finish sixth overall, the second finisher on the Irish team which also featured Tom O’Connor (Liffey Valley) and Michael Cornyn (Dunboyne).

The trio combined well to hold off the Italian team, who were second, and the Koreans who won the bronze medals.

This result is just reward for O’Grady who has put in months of self-sacrifice and intense training to achieve his goal. Medals at this level don’t come easy and his task was made all the more difficult as he was nursing a hamstring injury which had curtailed his preparations.

Fellow Drogheda & District athlete Mark O’Shea will be competing in the middle-distance events later in the week.

Much closer to home, Stephen Kelly was racing round the streets of Balbriggan on St Patrick’s Day on his way to finishing runner-up in the Balbriggan 10k road race.

Kelly, who was third in the Bohermeen 10k the week before, went one place better this time when finishing second in 35:07. A solid winter’s training has strengthened Kelly and he should record some fast times once he sharpens up in the coming weeks.

Kasia Reynolds ran 61:55 for the course and finished 174th.

In the longer half-marathon event, Carmel Keenan raced well to finish 36th in 1:44:01, Gerard Fay was 79th in 1:58:49 and Sinead McGuinness 87th in 2:05:36.

More than 1,200 runners took part in Sunday’s MSB 5k road race in Dublin and Drogheda & District’s prolific racer Shane Larkin - whose appetite for racing knows no bounds - finished 36th overall in 17:28 and third in his category.

The club’s second runner home was Joey Ryan who finished 230th in 21:58, with Liam Farrell further back in 301st in 23:01.

For the D&D ladies, Ciara O’Reilly raced well and had a solid run to finish in 20:23 on what many runners felt was a slightly long course, which can happen sometimes. Helen Dillon was the club’s second finisher in 435th place in 25:24, with Siobhan Shortt back in 488th in 26:13.

Saturday’s challenging Oldbridge Parkrun over 5k tempted seven members and the club’s first finisher was Brian Guilfoyle in 22:21, with Tony Corcoran in 24th place in 24:20 and David Thornton not far behind in 37th in a solid 25:51.

Rose Dalton was Drogheda & District’s first lady finisher in 34:51 and Audrey Corcoran ran the course in 39:14.

Others who ran on the day were Donall Dunne and Donal Branigan.

Popular club member Suzanne McCabe was Drogheda & District’s sole entrant in the Lismullin NS 10k road race on Sunday. McCabe, who’s made a steady comeback after injury, coped well with this rather hilly course and crossed the line in 50:53 which put her in 53rd place.

Gerard Fay was in action at the weekend when he ran not one but two marathons! Fay ran 4:26 for the Tralee International Marathon on Saturday and incredibly ran 6:10 for a second marathon the following day on the same course.