Donnelly dominates in winning 5K race
A COLD, swirling wind greeted the large group of Drogheda & District AC athletes who took part in Sunday’s Louth Novice Cross-Country Championships.
Not alone were the runners eager to get their hands on county medals, but the battle for club honours was on in earnest as there’s nothing like friendly rivalry to drive tired legs along this winding 1500m course which contains a testing hill while running into a gusting wind.
First up were the ladies in their 3K event - run over two laps - and what a race this turned out to be as Laura Campbell and Roisin Coade took up the front running with just under a lap remaining.
This pair poured on the pace and were soon clear of the rest of the field, and with just half a lap to go Campbell pushed hard to open a small gap which she held all the way to the finish to come home a worthy and popular winner, with Coade holding on well to get the silver medal.
Often in the battle for team medals, the real heroes are the third and fourth-placed runners who secure the vital points needed to get the win and Mary McGreehan certainly rose to the occasion when she produced an inspired run to move from ninth place up to sixth over the last lap, with the pain of her effort etched on her face coming down the home straight.
Backed up by the strong-finishing Yvonne McMahon, things were looking good for the Drogheda quartet, but unfortunately - although they tied level with North East Runners on 18 points - North East took the gold medals on the countback rule.
D&D’s second team of Sinead Weldon, Ieva Ofmane, Michelle Egan and Elva Maree combined well to take third place in the team category.
In the Men’s 6K race - run over four laps - Shane Larkin did what he does best when running hard and fast right from the gun to power his way to a silver medal finish.
Close behind - and doing some fine running - were Sam O’Neill, Fintan Maher and Cillian Dyas and these four packed well to win the Men’s team event. Also running well were Francis Murray, David Campbell and Paddy Murphy.
Taking place after the Novice races were the Louth Even Age Cross-Country Championships and in the Boys U-18 event Tadgh Donnelly gave the performance of the day with a confident run as he led the pack right from the gun and pulled away in the second half to win the 5K by some margin from his clubmate Cormac Canning in second place.
New to cross-country running, Liam Mulligan ran well in the testing conditions to make up the third man on the Drogheda & District team that took the team honours.
In the U-18 Girls race Abi Tegart took the bronze and alongside teammates Anna Victory and Moya McCabe won gold in the team race.
In the U-16 Girls race there were strong runs by Kate O’Reilly, Muirne O’Connor and Saoirse Smith to pick up silver in the team event, while in the U-16 Boys event brothers Daniel and Peter Aylward, along with Eoghan Curran, won the team event with a steady group effort over the 3K course.
In the Boys Under-8, race D&D were represented by Danny O’Reilly, Cillian Russell, Shay O’Callaghan and Sam McGinn, all making their cross-country debut and acquitting themselves very well.
Lauren Egan, Ruby Berrill and Aoife O’Connor all ran their hearts out in the Girls Under-10 event, while in the same event for boys Patrick Lennon - in his first race for D&D - and Finn Coade both ran strongly.
In the Girls Under-12 event Sofia Drakoulaki - another of the club’s newcomers - showed her natural talent when running a very strong 2k, and also performing well were Ciara O’Connor, Meabh McCabe and Lilli Maye Coade who had a tough fall in the race.
In the Under-12 Boys event Jack McGinn, Cormac Russell, Tadgh Gogarty and Darragh Callaghan all ran very solidly and showed real promise.
For the Under-14 Girls, Sophie Kinsella - running out of her age group - showed how much she has progressed in her first year of running with a fine performance from start to finish. Ciara Wall had a great run too over the 3k course and really showed some of her potential.
Under-14 boys Cillian Gogarty and Charlie Eccles raced their hearts out of the tough 3k course, both putting in fine performance.
Elsewhere, Colm Reilly won the Lusk 10K road race over the weekend, running a useful 38 minutes for the distance to come home a clear winner.
Also running well at last Saturday’s Oldbridge Parkrun was Yasmin Canning who recorded a new PB time of 20:15 when coming fourth overall, while Brian Guilfoyle also ran a new PB when finishing 14th in 22:40.