Week to remember for Doyle
DAVID Doyle enjoyed a week to remember in the colours of Duleek & District AC as he continued his impressive form with two great results.
First up, he turned out to compete in the Irish Runner Magazine Paced Mile at ALSAA, a well-run and enjoyable event which is a great opportunity for athletes to achieve their mile PB as pacers take the pressure of timing off.
Doyle made good use of the favourable conditions to achieve the holy grail of mile running, setting a personal best of five minutes exactly.
There was an influx of athletes from Duleek into the townland of Lismullen on Sunday as the club was out in force for the second race of the Supreme Clean Captain’s League over 10k.
However, Doyle opted for the 3k road race event and the uphill finish didn’t deter him as he stuck to his race plan and achieved a third-place finish in a speedy time of 10:32.
In the 10k Greg Dixon was first home for the club in 41:17, followed by Fran Power in 42:44. Lorraine Noone was the first lady home and Karen Creed was second home for the club. Despite a few tough uphill climbs Tom Conroy set a PB in 46:25, as did Gerry Murphy.
Lady Captain Celena Tierney motivated the troops by example as she PB’d the course. The training structure has been paying off for Marion Hayden and Angela Woods and they too both ran superb races on the day.
In the scramble for precious league points it was a good day at the office for team Swatt, with four of them setting PBs, and the teams are now gearing up for the third race in the league, the Drogheda 10k.
Elsewhere, the streets of Dundalk were alive on Saturday last, with hundreds of runners taking part in the Patsy Kelly 5k road race. Shane Reid represented Duleek & District AC in the well-run and popular race.
•Duleek native Keith Marks, competing in the colours of DCU, won both the long jump and high jump for his team at last weekend’s Intervarsities Championships, held at the Mary Peters track in Belfast. Marks overcame a shaky start in the high jump, knocking over his first attempt at 1.75m, eventually becoming the only athlete to clear 1.90m.
An hour later he went to the long jump event and had a best effort of 7.08m, again earning top points for his college who went on to win the overall men’s and women’s titles.