Drogheda athletes

ROUND four of Drogheda & District AC’s Summer Graded Track Series took place on a windswept evening at the Lourdes Stadium and numbers taking part were up considerably thanks to the efforts of Barney Flannery who had organised a challenge race between various groups within the club.

In the first event of the evening, the classic mile over four laps, Paul Smith had a fine run to finish fourth in 5:11, which was good running given the conditions. Colin Leonard was six6th in 5:17 andy Paddy Murphy ninth in 5:49.

In the B race, Barry Sullivan ran well to finish fourth in 5:50, with Paul McDonnell sixth in 5:51 and Joey Ryan seventh in 5:57.

Director of training Declan Monaghan had a great battle with Paul Reilly as they sprinted for the line, with Monaghan just getting the nod when finishing ninth in 6:00 to Reilly’s 10th-place finish. Rachel McCormack was 12th just one second further back, followed by Aoife Harmon.

In the C race, Mary Lindsey had a good run to finish fourth in 6:40, followed by Christy Duffy who was seventh in 6:49. Karen Delaney also ran well when running 7:04 to finish ninth.

Without doubt, the race of the evening had to be the 400m A race where speed merchants Lee McGuinness and Andrew Kelly went head to head on their home ground.

Once the gun went, this pair scorched round the first bend and hit the 200m mark in under 25 seconds, which was incredibly fast. With less than 50 metres to go these two still couldn’t be seperated and it was only in the last few strides that McGuinness edged ahead slightly and won in a cracking 53.6, to Kelly’s 53.9. Hugh Callan was third in 56.9, Paul Stuart fourth in 59.0 and Orla O’Connor fifth in 62.6.

Roisin Coade struggled a little in the windy conditions but still ran a decent 69.2 when finishing fourth in her 400m B race.

Frank Cruise used his experience to get the pace right when winning his 400m D race in 71.1, with young Moya McCabe - who ran over hurdles - second in 76.4. Frank’s daughter Kelly also ran a well-judged race to win her 400m E race in 74.3, with Alan Floyd second in 79.8. Mary Toner was fifth and Brian Callan sixth.

In the longest event of the evening, the 3,000m, Stephen Kelly kept the home fans excited as he worked hard to stay in touch with Mark Malone from Newry AC. It was only in the closing stages that Malone opened up a gap to win in 9:44, with Kelly second in 9:51. Shane Larkin finished fourth in 10:00, just a couple of strides ahead of Brian Martin who was fifth. John Hough ran a useful 10:44 for ninth, one place ahead of Martin Russell. Also running well were Francis Murray who was 13th and Thomas Farrelly who finished 14th.

Mary McGreehan ran well to finish fifth in the B race in 13:09, with Niamh Matthews seventh in 13:25:1 and Michelle Egan a close eighth.

Club chairman Aonghus O’Connor was literally throwing his weight about as he finished seventh in the shot with a throw of 7:00m.

The DDAC juveniles were also in action at the graded meeting and the standout performances included Liam Mulligan who had one thing in mind, to break the six-minute barrier in the mile.

It was never in doubt as he ran steadily over the four laps to finish in a PB time of 5:45.

One of the up and coming stars, Sophie Kinsella, continued her progress with a strong run in the 400m, finishing second in 72.2sec.

Moya McCabe, in preparation for the Leinster Championships, ran her 400m over hurdles and clocked 76.4sec.

The club’s juveniles were in action again at last Saturday’s Leinster Championships in Tullamore, Offaly.

Anastasia Drakoulaki, running in the U-14 200m, was fifth in her heat in a great time of 29.28, just missing out on the final by less than half a second. She then ran a fantastic first leg in the U-15 4x100m relay team which came fifth overall.

Moya McCabe had a commendable fourth in the 300m hurdles, running a super time of 52:04 against a top-class field.

Tadhg Donnelly continues to go from strength to strength and he easily won the U-17 1500m in a time of 4:17.98.

In the U-14 80m Anastasia Drakoulaki ran 11.22, qualifying her for the final, and she then followed up with a strong showing in the long jump, with a distance of 4.28m placing her fifth in a field of 28.

There were some good performances from the D&D track runners who took part in the IMC Meeting hosted by Le Cheile AC in Kildare.

Conditions on the day were to make things tough, with an unrelenting headwind slowing times somewhat.

Nevertheless, Lee McGuinness ran well under pressure to finish fifth in his 100m B race in 12:05 and later in the day ran a good bend to finish second in his 200m B race in a fast 23:51.

In the 800m, run over two laps, Orla O’Connor coped well with the conditions to record a solid 2:20:65 when finishing ninth in the B race.

Mark O’Shea, running in his 800m D race against some quality opposition, produced the goods when it mattered to finish fourth in a lively 2:01:44, with less than a second between the first four competitors.

In the Women’s 1500m, Mary Leech kept her concentration and worked hard to finish seventh in her A race in 4:53:09, while Fintan Maher, running in the 1500m, had a solid run to record 4:32:77.

Then, over the weekend, Tadgh Donnelly won the U-17 Boys 1500m at the Leinster Championships in a time of 4:17.98.

Six club members made the short trip to Trim for last Friday’s Braveheart 5K Trail Run.

Hosted by Trim AC, this race is run over grass and pathways