O’Shea’s worldly feats ‘marked’ by AAI
AFTER dominating on the world stage, the 2017 AAI Masters Athlete of the Year title could hardly have gone to anyone other than Drogheda & District AC’s Mark O’Shea.
Bettystown-based O’Shea won the 800m title at the World Masters Indoor Track Championships in South Korea and went on to achieve the double, coming through to take the 1500m in an Irish record time of 4:07.44 after a thrilling sprint finish.
But the reluctant star was still stuck for words after beating two other nominees to claim the coveted honour at the awards ceremony in Dublin last Wednesday, watched by his proud wife as well as club colleague Pat O’Grady.
By Sunday evening the news still hadn’t fully sunk in, but the classy middle-distance runner insisted that the numbers meant every bit as much to him as the awards themselves.
‘It’s nice to be recognised,’ he began, ‘and it was a very good day - the whole thing was
excellent and I was honoured to have been nominated.
‘It’s flattering to win the award in the presence of so many greats like Eamonn Coghlan, John Treacy, Ronnie Delaney and Louth greats Gina Akpe Moses and Gary O’Hanlon.
‘But I think you know me and I find these things difficult even though they come with the territory.
‘You always try to get better, make small improvements. All I go looking for is personal bests and medals and championships come from that. Awards are the furthest thing from one’s mind when preparing for the racing season.’
O’Shea’s latest honour was celebrated by his Drogheda & District AC and a club spokesman added: ‘Congratulations to Mark O’Shea.
‘As well as being gifted with great natural speed, O’Shea possesses tremendous tactical awareness and brings a very complete approach to his training and racing which our younger runners can only learn from.’