Oldbridge success for Paul in new PB

WITH the All-Ireland National Novice Cross-Country Championships taking place next Saturday at Navan Racecourse and Drogheda & District AC’s sold-out Christmas 5K the following day, many D&D members have been resting up for those events.

However, that wasn’t the case for Paul Smith who delivered the goods in spades as he powered round the hilly slopes of Donore on his way to winning the Oldbridge Parkrun in a new PB time of 17:27.

Progress in athletics is rarely spectacular and it normally takes a couple seasons for the work in training to bed in and the results to emerge on a consistent basis.

Smith, who is not afraid of putting in the hard work that’s necessary to succeed at this level, is now reaping the rewards and he’ll go well over the remaining cross-country races.

D&D’s next finisher in eighth spot - in a solid 20:24 - was Stephen Geraghty and this looks to be a real breakthrough year for him.

The club’s most prolific racer, Nuala Reilly, was next across the line in 23:09 and she continues to show many of her younger rivals a clean pair of heels over this tough 5K course. Michele McCullough was the club’s second woman finisher in 37th spot in 27:17, with Ruth Dunne 52nd in 30:29.

Others who ran for D&D included Yann Mahuet, Paul McArdle and Sinead McGuinness.

Meanwhile, taking pride of place at the Drogheda & District AC Sports Star of the Year awards held last weekend were Kieran McGrath and Mary Leech.

Leech had a tremendous season on the track which was topped off by her winning a silver medal in the 1500m at the European Masters Track Championships, and then later in the season making the final of the 1500m at the World Masters in Malaga.

McGrath also made both finals and really produced the goods when it counted by running three 800m races in succession in under two minutes on his way to making the final of his favourite event at the World Championships.

Both of these fine athletes are great role models for the club’s up and coming juniors and it’s their ability to do the small things well that makes the big difference when it comes to championship racing.

Meanwhile, at the ALSAA Winter League, there was a clash of titans over the mile distance, with Gerard Fay edging out Christy Duffy by three seconds to take home the bragging rights for what Duffy says will be a very short spell!

Later in the week, Fay headed south to run the Clonakilty Marathon and finished 258th in 4hr 41min.