Silver lining for Stephen
DROGHEDA & District AC’s Stephen Kelly produced a heroic performance at Sunday’s Leinster Masters Cross-Country Championships, finishing a close second despite running most of the race with only one shoe!
This year’s venue was Dunboyne in County Meath and although the course was fair to the 240 competing athletes, it was certainly slippery in places and demanded that the runners pay attention to what they were doing.
After a delayed start of 30 minutes the gun went and a leading pack of some really useful runners soon emerged, with 6K of tough running ahead of them.
Among them was the red vest of Kelly who was now up to eighth place in a tightly bunched pack.
However, just over half a lap gone of this three-lap race the Drogheda & District man lost one of his running spikes in the sticky mud and had to run the rest of the race with just one shoe.
Undeterred, Kelly gamely stuck to his task and never let a gap open on his main rivals, and coming into the home straight Kelly was well in with a chance of the gold medal.
The finish had to be seen to be believed as each of these runners gave it their all, and with so many age categories running together it can be difficult to know exactly where you are in the pecking order.
Alas, on this occasion Kelly was to finish in second place, a mere one second behind Clive Quinn who is a real quality runner from Sli Cualann AC.
Also running well was Shane Larkin whose light frame makes him ideally suited to cross-country running. Larkin ran well to finish sixth in his category, less than a minute off the medals.
Paddy Murphy, who’s going really well in training, delivered the big run when it counted and finished a very creditable 14th in his Over-50 category.
Roger Tegart, who’s currently training for an ultra-distance event, held good form and ran a controlled race to finish well and hold off some of his rivals on the run-in.
With the upcoming Leinster Indoor Championships in mind, some of D&D’s finest track runners headed off to Ireland’s latest indoor track in Abbottstown last Thursday evening.
There were some really good performances on the night, none more so than young James Nolan who had a terrific run to record a time of 2:00.07 when winning his 800m race.
Kieran McGrath pushed Nolan all the way and his second-place finish in a fine 2:02 shows how well this pair are running at this stage of the season.
Pat O’Grady gave himself an early birthday present when he ran a fine 10:02 for his 3k event - good running as the tight bends tend to slow times somewhat. O’Grady will be looking to medal in the European Indoor Championships later in the year if all goes to plan.
Mary Leech had good reason to smile as she ran a sparkling new PB time of 10:24 in her 3K race. Running at a consistently high tempo, Leech never let the pace drop and indeed pushed harder over the last few laps while maintaining her running form, which is sure to please the coaches.
Robbie Maher ran a fast last 200m in an unusually paced 800m and crossed the line in 2:15 to win with just a mere second to spare over clubmate Brian Pentony (2:16).
Orla O’Connor who’s getting stronger by the week, ran 2:24 for her 800m and will run much faster when her training load lightens as the season progresses.
Yasmin Canning, who can always be counted on to deliver a strong run, did just that when running 2:40 for her 800m race.
In the 200m there were some good performances from Andrew Kelly (24.24sec), Ephan Donnelly and Lee McGuinness, despite the latter’s blocks slipping as he took off.
Four of D&D’s most prolific racers made their way to Tymon Park in Tallaght last Saturday for the BHAA Cross-Country Series.
Conor Cooney certainly showed that he’s recovered well from injury as he ran a strong last mile to win his category in the Men’s 4-mile race in 29:50, although Gerry Mullins ran like a man possessed to finish ahead of Cooney on this occasion in 29:17.
Newly-elected club captain Jim Nolan delivered a solid run to cover the course in 30:30 despite not firing on all cylinders, while the ever-present Nuala Reilly ran hard all the way to finish second in her category in the Women’s 2-mile race.
Some D&D members took on the challenge of the weekly Oldbridge Parkrun where a cold and wet morning greeted the runners as they lined up for this very popular 5K cross-country race.
The club’s first finisher last Saturday, in second place, was Tony Corcoran who covered the ever-softening ground well in 22:55, David Thornton had a good run to finish in 11th place and Ruth Dunne was 38th overall in 39:45.