Hard work pays for Hearty
RUNNING on tired legs proved to be no deterrent to Peter Hearty as he took home the first Meath championship medal of the year for Duleek & District Athletic Club at the recent Fr Murphy AC 10K.
In a frantic week of action the fun started with that competition in Kildalkey which also served as the county championships. In blustery conditions and on a testing, winding and technical course, Hearty made light of the conditions to clock an impressive time of 37:28 to take Meath Championship bronze in his category.
This result was achieved seven days after Hearty ran the Rotterdam Marathon.
The ever-improving Derek Reilly ran another impressive PB of 37:38, as did Alan McKeown (43:13).
Easter weekend proved to be a bumper weekend as the action moved from Kildalkey to the road-racing capital, Raheny, for the Battle of Clontarf 10-mile event.
Mixed in amongst the strong field in St Anne’s Park were two Duleek athletes. Club newcomer Eric Devine has already been making steady improvements this season and that graph continued upwards as he clocked an impressive time of 68 minutes - a PB. Clubmate Paddy Ryan ran an equally impressive 86 minutes.
The action then moved to Claremont Stadium in Navan for the latest instalment of the Meath Club Track and Field League.
First up were the Under-9 Boys and Girls 250m where Nessa Rohan gave a demonstration of front-running in the first heat as she led from gun to tape to take first place. In the second heat the gutsy Saoirse Power placed third. Saoirse and Nessa were equally impressive in the long jump pit as they both cleared 2.60m.
In the same events for boys, Jack O’Connor and Rhys Doyle placed fourth and seventh respectively in Heat 1 and Kyle Scully ran a very strong second heat to come seventh. This good form carried through to the long jump pit, with all athletes clearing 2.2 metres.
For the U-10s Holly Dunnion ran a very strong 300m heat to place well and also threw strongly in the turbo javelin. In the Boys 300m there was little to separate Kenny Killeen and Harry Meehan in Heat 1, with Heat 2 bringing the best out of Evan Hoey and Jack Maxwell. All four boys threw well in the javelin.
There was a1, 2, 3 for the club in the Girls turbo javelin, with Doireann Power, Ciara McRoary and Megan O’Connor taking the placings. Nicole Hoey and Ruby Hartford ran brilliantly in the 300m event, as did Luke Cooney in the boys race.
Jake Meehan delivered a great clearance in the U-12 high jump and also finished strongly to place well in the 300m.
In the U-13 heats Sarah Woods went out hard and held on to place well in her heat, with Sarah Maxwell adopting a similar strategy and delivering a similar result.
It was over to Fran Power and David Doyle to vacuum up an additional few points in the Masters 1500m.
The action then moved to the Duleek Cystic Fibrosis 10k, and as ever there was a large turnout from Duleek & District AC.
Given the scenic route, attractive race t-shirt, souvenir medal and complementary post-race barbeque, it was easy to see why the race continues to grow in popularity and there were some great runs from Orla Crosby, Maria Nestor, Anne Hamilton, Olive Wall and Dawn Heeney.
Eleven of the club’s juvenile athletes competed in the Cushinstown AC sports.
In the Under-12 high jump Ruby Harford and Megan O’Connor moved up an age category and competed in what is a very technical event for the very first time. Aoife Rohan continued to show how adept she is at this discipline by winning the event and setting a new PB of 1.33m.
Daniel O’Connor and Cian Rohan ran very well in the tiny tots race, with Daniel placing second.
In the Under-8 sprints Bronagh Deehan and Miles Killeen both ran their hearts out, with Bronagh just missing out on a medal and Miles taking gold.
In the Under-9s Nessa Rohan and Jack O’Connor competed in the 80m, with Nessa following up on her victory during the week with a bronze in this event and Jack narrowly outside the placings. Jack moved up an age category to compete in the long jump and turbo javelin also.
Kenny Killeen competed in the Under-10 long jump, turbo javelin and 80m sprint, and came through strongly in his sprint event to take fifth place.
Ruby Harford and Megan O’Connor also went in the 80m heats, with Megan qualifying for the final where she ran a great race. Both girls moved up an age category to compete in the Under-12 long jump.
Conal Deehan qualified for the 80m finals where he was narrowly pipped for a medal and Aoife Rohan rounded off the day for the club by taking an impressive bronze in the Under-12 100m final.