McGuinness flies the flag for Drogheda
Lee McGuiness flew the Drogheda & District flag proudly at the National Junior Championships in Tullamore last weekend, reaching the final of the 200m on Saturday.
McGuinness ran a lively 22:92 to finish second in his heat and later in the final he ran even faster to finish 6th in 22:72 against the best Junior athletes in the country.
McGuinness also ran in the 100m where he finished 7th in his heat in 11:41.
Also running was Cormac Canning who didn’t quite get into his race as can sometimes happen, nevertheless Canning gained valuable championship experience when finishing 16th in his 1500m race in 4:36:79.
Round 5 of the Summer Graded Series took place took place last Thursday evening at the Lourdes Stadium.
With the mercury hitting 26 degrees on the thermometer the distance runners who were racing the 5000m were in for a hard time to say the least.
Thankfully the usual gale which blows down the back strait had softened to a light breeze and was welcomed by the runners once the gun went.
Mark Malone from Newry AC made this a true run race and soon opened up a sizeable gap which he held to the finish when winning in a decent 16:48.
Brian Martin raced well to finish second in 17:04 with Pocket Rocket Shane Larkin chasing him hard over the last few laps to finish third in 17:17.
Back racing after a serious leg injury was David Walsh and he showed that things are coming right at last when finishing 7th in a solid 18:37 and it’s all about getting the miles back in his legs over the coming months.
Maureen Harbison DDAC’s the first woman across the line in 22:08 with Linda Byrne Cruise next in 25:16.
The shortest event of the evening, the 100m saw four races take place and the A race was a thriller with only a fraction of a second between winner Anthony Dillon from Dunleer AC and Andrew Kelly from the host club.
Dillon won in 11:30 with Kelly the width of a singlet behind in 11:50, with Karl Carton 4th in 12:60.
Frank Cruise had a decent run to place 7th.
DDAC juveniles, were well represented in the B race with three future stars in action.
Young Sophie Kinsella ran right to the tape to snatch 3rd place in 14:4 with Moya McCabe 5th in 14:7 and Muirne O’Connor 7th in 15:3.
Later in the evening, Kinsella put her speed to good use when finishing 5th in the Long Jump in 3:86 against much stronger opposition.
Kelly Cruise ran well to win her C race in 15:0 with Mary Kinsella 6th in 17:6 and Leah Lambe 7th in 20:3.
The D race was an interesting affair with all eight runners from the host club, with Alan Floyd winning in 15:8 from Brian Callaghan who was second in 16:8 with Linda Cross 3rd in 17:5.
In the 800m, run over 2 laps of the track, Hugh Callan held good form in his A race to finish 4th in 2:13:02.
The B race saw David Campbell show some of his speed when finishing 3rd in 2:19:41 with club chairman Aonghus O’Connor 5th in 2:26:30.
Mags Nugent also raced well to place 10th in 2:31:94 with Roisin Coade 12th in 2:34:6.
In the combined C and D race, Mike Staunton ran 3:14 when finishing 5th with Linda Cross 6th in 3:15 and Kerry McHugh 8th in 3:45.
Making the short trip to Kilcock last Friday for the St. Coca’s 5k race were Shane Larkin and Paddy Reilly.
Larkin, who was running his second 5K race in two days delivered a strong run to finish 30th overall and 3rd in his category in 16:40, in a race that was won by Freddy Sittuk in a fast 14:52.
Paddy Murphy also produced a quality run to go sub 19 minutes with his run of 18:46 placing him 6th in his category against some good class athletes.
The BHAA OPW Runlogic 5K Trail Run took place in the Phoenix park and there were some good performances from DDAC members.
Colm Reilly was 10th overall in a decent 17:50 with Conor Cooney next in 87th spot in 23:17 which earned him a 2nd in category prize.
Jim Nolan had a tough time during the run but finished 91st in 23:36 and Nuala Reilly won her category with her run of 23:38.
At the midweek Clonee 10K, Colm Reilly put in a spirited run to record a useful 37:29 for this popular road race while Gerard Fay ran the course in 59:30.
Meanwhile, at the Dublin Docklands 5K Liam Farrell ran 22:54 for this well attended race.
Last Saturday’s Oldbridge Parkrun took place in glorious sunshine and times would have been slowed somewhat by the hot conditions.
First finisher in 14th place overall was Laura Roche who ran 22:33 for this challenging 5K course.
Next in 19th spot was Nuala Reilly in a solid 23:16 with Conor Cooney a mere 3 seconds behind with 23:19 when finishing 20th overall.
David Thornton was 28th in 25:41 and Linda Bowe was 41st in 27:30.