D&D members take Raheny race by storm

THE red vests of Drogheda & District AC were out in force for Sunday’s Raheny 5-mile Road Race as 60 members were among the field of almost 4,000 runners.

This is one of the best organised races in Ireland, but conditions on the day were cold and wet and a vital start was always going to be vital as there are a couple of very tight corners to be negotiated early on which are not for the faint-hearted.

Pocket rocket Shane Larkin had the run of the day when finishing in 75th place overall in a fast 28:07. Larkin ran hard in a controlled way from gun to tape to finish just ahead of Catherina McKieran who’s making a comeback to Irish athletics.

Stephen Duggan was next home in 152nd place in 29:30, with Ruaidhri Nolan not far behind in 29:50.

One man who had reason to smile was popular club member Paddy Murphy who took a massive 40 seconds off his PB when finishing in 31:44. Like his clubmate Larkin, Murphy is small in stature but huge in heart and really put the work in to get this great result.

Other good performances on the day came from David Shiel (32:15), Rob Power (33:31) and Stephen Floyd (33:10).

For the club’s ladies, first home was prolific racer Nuala Reilly who ran a fine 35:38 for the distance and yet finished in 676th place, such was the standard. Yvonne McMahon had a solid run to finish in 38:28, with Kerry Tully not far behind in 38:50.

New club captain Jane Glynn ran 42:48 and was closely followed by Edel Smith in 42:50. Others who ran well included Sinead Shaw, Ellen O’Connor and Martina O’Connor Dyas.

There were some very encouraging early-season performances at last Saturday’s AIT National League Round 2 in Athlone.

New Irish Masters record holder Mark O’Shea had a thrilling race with clubmate Kieran McGrath and at the finish McGrath just pipped O’ShO’Shea byb a mere fourf one hundrethsh of a second in 2:02.82.

Orla O’Connor showed that she’s wintered well when finishing fifth in her heat in a fast 2:20.95, while Mary Leech put in a fine early-season run on the boards when placing eighth in her heat in 4:53.7.

Some of the club’s sprint group members went very well, with Hugh Callan running a fast 55:23 for third place in his heat of the 400m.

Gerry O’Connor ran well and finished fifth in his heat in 1:00.58.

In the shorter 200m event, Frank Cruise ran 29.76sec when finishing third in his race and Andrea McCabe placed fourth in her event in 33.9.

Some Juvenile members were in action last Friday at the North Leinster Schools Cross-Country in ALSAA.

Those who qualified for the Leinster Schools CC were Oliver Clutterbuck - fifth in the Minor Boys 1500m - and Tadgh Donnelly who was ninth in the Inter Boys 4,500m. Donnelly and clubmate Ben Egan, who finished 54th, were running a yeyear out of their age group.

Sam O’Neill also qualified when hhe finished 12th in the Senior Boys 5,500m, with Robbie Caffrey in 18th place and Sonny Doyle (ppictured left) in 30th. Other good pperformances came from Kate O’Reilly (20th in the Junior Girls 2,500m), Moya McCabe (23rd) and Una McGreehan O’Grady (57th).

Lee McGuinness got his indoor seseason off to a good start when pplacing second in his heat at the NNational Juniors on Sunday.

Running at the AIT Arena in Athlone, his time of 23.06 wasn’t quite good enough to qualify for the final.

Last Saturday’s Oldbridge Parkrun saw two Drogheda & District members record new PBs for this challenging 5k course. David Birch ran well to finish 14th in 23:08, while Deirdre Kennedy ran 31:06 for the course and finished in 81st place.

Aimee Corcoran won the ladies race when finishing 19th overall in 23:41 and first home for the D&D men was Tony Corcoran who finished ninth overall in 22:39.