D&D runners sharpen up
WITH only a week to go to this year’s Leinster Masters Track Championships which will be held in Tullamore, some of Drogheda & District’s leading athletes have been in action as they sharpen up for the shorter track events.
At last Wednesday’s Graded Meeting, held in Irishtown, Hugh Callan gave his confidence a boost when running an eye-opening 54.46 in finishing fifth in his 400m race against some good quality opposition.
In the same race club coach Gerry O’Connor raced well to finish seventh in 1:00.61.
Roisin Coade put her recent speed training to good use when finishing fifth in the Ladies 400m in a solid 1:07.6 and she could medal in Tullamore if all goes well.
In the 800m event, which is always a difficult race to get the pace right, Erin McHugh ran 2:37.16 to finish fifth in her C race. Also running the 800m was David Quinn who was 11th in 2:15.94.
Meanwhile, on the back roads of Enfield, Co Meath, some D&D members were sweating it out in the Na Fianna/Bob Heffernan 5k Road Race. This very popular event always attracts a large entry of quality athletes and the medals won here don’t come easy.
Colm Reilly coped well with the unusually warm weather and raced round the course in a fine 17:58 to finish 103rd overall.
Nuala Reilly led home the D&D ladies when winning her category in 22:18, with Michelle Egan next in 23:33. Also running were Edel Smith (25:50) and Siobhan Shortt who ran 25:59.
David Walsh made last Saturday’s journey to Tullamore worthwhile where he competed in the IMC/ Bertie Quinn Track and Field Meeting.
Running in the 800m C race, Walsh gave a good account of himself when finishing eighth in 2:05.18 against some of the cream of Irish Masters Athletics, and there’s lots more to come from him this summer.
Last Saturday’s Oldbridge Parkrun tempted 12 D&D members to run this rather challenging 5k course and their first finisher was Martin Russell who’s relatively new to running. His time of 20:41 was good running over the hilly fields. Niall Donnelly was ninth in 21:13 and not far behind was Tony Corcoran who was 12th in 21:50.
Running a new PB was Barbara O’Donnell who finished 48th in 27:25, as did Helen Molloy who was 59th in 30:00. Also running PBs were Senan Gough (22:47) and Anne Marie Kierans (32:23).
This Thursday sees round three of the D&D Summer Graded Series take place at the Lourdes Stadium. Events on the night are the 100m, 400m, 1500m and the Long Jump.
A quick mention must go to Andrew Coscoran who sometimes trains in the Stadium. Coscoran, who runs with Star of the Sea AC, recently ran 3:42 for the 1500m to qualify for the European U-23 Championships. He now has the qualifying A standard for both the 1500m and 5,000m.