Drogheda quartet on big stage
EVERY athlete worth their salt wants to compete at the highest level and for most Irish athletes the holy grail of running is to make the final of the National Senior Track & Field Championships.
Last Saturday saw four of Drogheda & District AC’s most talented track runners make the short trip to the Morton Stadium in Santry in their quest to win a national title and perhaps secure an Irish singlet.
First up in the 200m was sprint specialist Lee McGuinness who’s been a real find for our club and Louth athletics.
Running into a headwind in Heat 3, McGuinness ran a terrific bend to keep himself in contention against some vastly more experienced athletes and held good form to finish seventh in 23:94, showing that he has the temperament required at the top level.
Kieran McGrath, perhaps D&D’s most consistent runner this year, delivered a quality performance when running an impressive 2:00.67 in Heat 3 of his 800m event.
Meanwhile, in Heat 1 of the Women’s 800m, Orla O’Connor was battling it out against Olympian Ciara Mageean in what turned out to be a tactically run race.
Mageean, who was doubling up by running in the 1500m, was never going to force the pace and with the field following her it meant that none of the fastest losers were going to qualify from this heat.
Indeed, O’Connor was just pipped at the line in 2:21.36 to finish 0.14 of a second away from making the final for the second year in a row. Such is championship racing.
Nevertheless, O’Connor has run some six seconds faster to record a season’s best time of 2:15 for this stomach-churning event and it will strengthen her resolve to progress her running career.
Running in the Women’s 1500m was Mary Leech, one of the club’s most gifted female athletes.
In many ways, Leech is a coach’s dream - superbly talented, not afraid of the hard work needed to succeed and with a sharp racing brain which is so necessary at this level.
Using every bit of her experience, Leech stayed off the fast early pace which can sometimes be caused by nerves and then poured on the pace over the last 700m in her heat to finish seventh in 4:51.4 to qualify for the National final the following day.
Running two quality races on successive days is never easy and when you add in the pressure that’s involved when national medals are at stake, some serious questions are asked of the athletes when they go to the line.
With most of these girls adopting a full-time approach to their running careers, the medals never come easy at this level.
In the final, which was run in quite blustery conditions, Leech gave it her all right from the gun and hung in at the back end of the pack for the first two laps.
Although the gap between Leech and the athlete ahead of her opened, she hung in there when the going got tough and was rewarded with a 4:51.48 time against some top-quality athletes.
Last Saturday’s Parkrun tempted five members to take to the hilly slopes of Oldbridge Estate for this weekly 5k cross-country race.
The recent fine weather came to an abrupt end, with heavy rain and a cold morning greeting the runners as they made their way up the hill towards Donore.
Regular Parkrun competitor Yann Mahuet was D&D’s first finisher in 16th place overall in a new PB time of 21:33.
Mahuet, who’s one of the club’s more recent members, has come on in leaps and bounds since taking part in group training sessions and he shows good promise as a runner.
Conor Cooney continued his comeback to racing when finishing 31st in 23:03, which was pretty solid running by him, and he was followed by Laura Roche - D&D’s first female finisher - in 34th spot in 23:48.
Also running were Seamus Roe and David Thornton.
Meanwhile, prolific racer Nuala Reilly showed many of her younger rivals a clean pair of heels when running a noteworthy 47:33 for the SSE Airtricity South Dublin 10K last weekend. Reilly’s run was good enough to ensure that she won her age category in some style.
Keeping it in the family was Colm Reilly, Nuala’s son, who raced round the course in a useful 37:54 when finishing 78th overall in a field which contained some quality runners.
Running in the 5K race, which was held in conjunction with the longer 10K event, were Gerard Fay who was 75th overall in 24:14, followed by Maria O’Brien who was 78th in 24:08.
Not far behind were Selina Cowley- 79th in 24:17 - and Anna Ryan who finished in 187th spot in 30:55.
Elsewhere, at the mid-week Raheny AC Summer Series 2 mile race Gerard Fay ran 14:44.
•Dunleer AC’s Garry Campbell was sixth in the 1500m at the National Senior Track & Field Championships in Santry, while clubmate Nicola Welsh was unlucky not to make the final of her 1500m event despite a good run in the heats.