Talented Anne has mastered the world
World recognition the icing on the cake for Gilshinan
THE NEWS was a great big surprise for Anne Gilshinan. Pitted against athletes from all over the globe, the Bridgetown-based runner was just delighted to be nominated as one of the world’s best middle distance runners by World Masters Athletics.
‘I got the European one before Christmas,’ Anne explained. ‘That was a surprise. I knew I was nominated but I didn’t expect to get it.
‘Based on getting the European one, then there were seven female athletes in middle distance (category), aged from 35 up. I didn’t dream I’d get it for the world one, that was a huge shock, it was, thrilled though.’
Naturally such recognition is rare, especially here. So rare that Anne is the first Irish female to claim this award. So not only is she the best in the world, she is surely now recognised as Ireland’s greatest-ever female Masters athlete.
‘I’ve seen the athletes out abroad,’ Anne said. ‘ When you are out there the competition is really high, so to be top of that is surreal.
‘You’re just busy training and racing and you don’t think about it. When you sit back and think about it, it makes it all worthwhile, definitely.’
It has been an interesting road to the top for Anne. She only took up athletics as a teenager back in school at St. Oliver’s, Oldcastle, in Co. Meath.
Her father, Paddy Tuite, and Michael Heary were instrumental in the early years as she picked up some international vests along the way.
However, life happens and studies in U.C.D. took over. Anne Tuite, as she was then, drifted away from the competitive side of the sport.
She kept her fitness up and enjoyed the relaxed side of running, but there was no real hankering to return to competition.
Anne married fellow teacher Keith Gilshinan and they moved to Wexford when he took a job in Presentation Secondary School in the mid-nineties. Running was still in the background as they started a family, with daughter Danika and son Jake arriving a few years later.
The sporting gene began to push to the forefront for the family as Danika showed promise on the track from a young age while Jake, not enamoured by athletics, turned his talents towards ball sports.
Both have continued to excel, with Danika picking up medals in athletics meets across the province. Jake, meanwhile, was an important part of the Forth Celtic side that made the Under-14 Cup final last season.
Before her children started to make their own sporting impressions, Anne’s competitive spirit took hold again.
‘I came back then in about 2011 and started to do road races locally, 5k, 10k road races,’ she explained. ‘ 2014 was my first track race, it was an open race in Cork, and that was the start then of my track.’
And maybe without the influence of a young Danika, Anne may never have been in a position to receive this incredible recognition, as it was only with a bit of cajoling from her daughter that she had a go.
‘The reason I did the race, I brought my daughter, it was an open meet, she was racing and she said, why don’t I go in the open mile? I had no answer. I decided I’d go in it and she gave me a loan of her spikes.’
Was it the feel of a soft rubber under her feet rather than the hard concrete road that gave Anne the buzz to give track more attention? Not really, it was looking at the clock and seeing how good her time was.
‘The time I ran,’ she noted, ‘I don’t know what it was but I could see the Irish record wasn’t too far away, and straight away I thought maybe I could go for a national record and that was the start’.
With the bit between her teeth, Anne has only gone from strength to strength in the five years since, medalling at a host of European and World games.
It hasn’t been easy, far from it, as the hard work of six training sessions a week shows the determination of the Slaney Olympic athlete.
She also credits those around her for her success. As well as the influence her family has in everything she does, Rich Burns plans her training regime from Stateside, Anthony Geoghegan has been vitally important in managing her injuries, Brian Kirwan has been critical with strength and conditioning, while Kevin Cogley has also been important within the support network.
For an athlete there’s always something on the horizon, something to train for, and Anne is no different. With the indoor season in full swing, the Europeans are first up, and then there’s the small matter of the worlds later in the year.
‘It’s busy now,’ Anne admited. ‘The indoor season is busy now until March when I go to the Europeans. Between this and then I have provincials, the Leinsters, then the nationals, and I go to the Europeans.
‘Then I take some time down and I start with the outdoor track. The big one there is in July, the outdoor world championships in Toronto,’ said Anne, who doesn’t put too much pressure on herself to achieve targets.
‘You’d hope to come home with medals but I set my sights on things, go for them, and do the best I can.’
So, without knowing what the future holds, it would take a brave person to bet against Anne Gilshinan in the coming weeks.
One thing’s for sure, as ‘WMA Best Masters Female Middle Distance Athlete of the Year’, all eyes will now be focused on the Bridgetown runner when she steps onto the track.