At the Dublin Graded meet in Tallaght tonight club members Clodagh Dunbar & Michael Deady travelled up to compete.
Clodagh took a much shorter race than her normal distance and opted to race over the 100m and posted 12.96 for 3rd place.
Michael was 5th in 11.73 running well over his favourite sprint distance.
Well done to both athletes.
When someone decides to take on a challenge they usually take on 10k, half marathon or maybe even the full marathon. Not Donal Grant, no he decided that those were not enough of a challenge so he took on the Connemara Ultramarathon 64km distance instead. That is a Marathon plus a Half marathon afterwards for good measure.
He put in dedicated training in recent months to prepare himself for the challenge and yesterday he took to the start line at 9am finishing in a very respectable race time of 6hrs 36 mins 21 seconds.
Huge congratulations Donal and enjoy the recovery.
The Wexford Half Marathon & 10k returned this morning after its break during the pandemic. A breezy morning with bright skies and quite mild temperatures made it good conditions for running.
Tackling the Half Marathon distance was
Jesse Kielthy 1:44:29
Tadhg Henderson 1:49:10
Sinead Cleary 1:52:36
Rob Casey 1 :54:21 (1st Half)
Fran Power 1:55:52
Enda O'Sullivan 2:12:25
Mary Cronin 2:21:31
Eleanor Roche 2:22:50
Running at the same time was the 10k route which is very popular amongst members and today saw the following represent the club ;
Dermot Foley 42:56
Paul Donovan 45:39
John Dier 48:59
Michael Kinsella 49:52
Louise Henderson 1:00:41
Sharron Dier 1:08:28
Bridie McGuire 1:52:39
Well done to everyone and enjoy the recovery this evening.
Wexford Tri Club 10k.
Easter Monday is the traditional date that our friends at Wexford Triathlon Club hold their very popular 10k around the scenic village of Rosslare Strand. Two laps of a fair 5k loop is the order of the day on a nice morning for running. Great to see our colours represented at the race. Jesse Kielthy, John Dier, David Clancy, Martin Kelly & Mary Gaynor all performed well with Martin being 1st home in his age category.
Sharron Dier & Bridie McGuire ran 1 loop finishing at 5k.
Well done to everyone showing the results of good training blocks recently.
The Mr. Oil Intermediate Road Race was the event for our road running crew on Sunday morning the 10th of April as they made their way to Enniscorthy as hosts Slaney Olympic stepped in late to host the event on the familiar roads of the old Dublin Road loop.
A cool breeze faced all athletes as they tackled the long drag up towards the finish line which ladies tackled once but men had to run it twice.
As always ladies were first to the start line facing a 4k route of just under 1 full lap of the race loop. Paula Gondard, Mary Gaynor, Catherine O'Connor & Sharron Dier were our members running. Fresh from winning a team bronze along with individual age cat medals at the recent Masters RR the ladies had a pep in their step and Paula lead them home with Mary & Catherine right behind her and Sharron showing that every place counts was 4th member of the team cementing another County Team Bronze medal for the club. The ladies are really leading by example this year by getting out and showing the spirit of club running and are being rewarded with results. Huge congratulations ladies.
When the ladies race was complete the men were at their start line and their course was just over 1.5 laps of the loop meaning the nasty drag with the breeze in their face had to be negotiated twice. Although the club is not blessed to have athletes who are fighting for individual medals the men showed up and competed on behalf of the club showing a great club mentality and it is a credit to them having numbers out wearing our vest in the race. Gavin Hayes was the team leader on this occasion with Dermot Foley next club man home. Fran Power, Rob Casey who ran his first County Race in club colours, John Dier & Michael Kinsella completed our lineup in the Men's race all posting respectable times for the 8k race. Well done men.
Again huge thanks to the County Board and hosts Slaney Olympic, the marshals and officials including our own Helen Sinnott and the supporters on the route keeping everyone going during the race.
Mr. Oil Senior RR is on Friday 13th May again hosted by Slaney Olympic on the same roads as today (5k ladies/10k men).
On April the 9th the Irish University track & Field championships made a welcome return to the calender after a lapse of two years this weekend in the fantastic facilities at Carlow IT. Aaron Tierney Smith (our 110m hurdler) in the colours of WIT ran a solid heat of the 400m breaking his PB to gain an automatic qualifying spot for the final. Good to see Aaron back in competition, now focusing on the longer 400m event. In the final he made a conservative start, going into the last 200m at the back of the field. He relaxed into his running and drove on strongly coming off the final bend gaining ground to get up to 6th place in 50.30 breaking his PB again.
Roisin O'Reilly racing in the colours of her college UCD had a solo run in the 3k steeplechase event. She put in two very fast opening laps building up a big lead on the chasing pack and was rewarded handsomely as she took the title in a new PB of 10.43. Roisin was delighted to get her season under way in such fashion. Work in progress for both athletes who continue to improve on their personal performances. Well done to both
Clodagh Dunbar fresh from posting her recent 200m PB a week ago has only gone on to post a new 400m pb by 0.44 seconds.
She attended the midweek NIA live event and showed her ability finishing 3rd in heat 3 posting 1.01.44
Beast mode well and truly activated !
A different event today for a determined Roisin O'Reilly as she ran in UCD colours at the annual Trinity v UCD Cross country event. A well earned 2nd place was her reward as she continues a dedicated training plan carefully managed by her club coach Mick McKeon.
Winter League
On Friday night last we witnessed the return of the hugely popular Wexford Winter League. The venue was the track at Enniscorthy Sports Hub and although the weather was not ideal it did not dampen the spirit of our enthusiastic young athletes. First race of the night was the Tots race and then the program of age groups ran smoothly and quickly with some excellent performances all around.
We were well represented on the night with the following all giving it everything :
Laoise Dwyer, Faye Carthy, Cuan Monaghan, Conor Donovan, Nico Losak, Max Gilhooley, Calum Redmond, Aobhin Dwyer, Amy Conde, Sophie Fortune, Lauren Jones, Abbie Donovan, Zaira Healy, Jack Kinsella Rory Henderson, Laragh Walsh, Elijah Redmond, Lucas Redmond & Liam Berry
There are 2 more nights of this league and we encourage as many as possible to attend if available. Thanks to all who made the event happen and all helpers on the night
Enniscorthy 10km
The Enniscorthy 10k hosted by Slaney Olympic was the place to be on Sunday. After a horrible night of rain the morning rain clouds gave way to a nice morning for running. Great to see this race back on the racing calender. Well done to our 5 members who were on a lads day out as they enjoyed the 2 loop course on offer.
Dermot Foley, Gavin Hayes , Michael Kinsella, Eamonn Foley & John Dier all acquitted themselves well and were happy with their finish times.
Thanks to host club Slaney Olympic who again pulled out all the stops with a top class race. by Slaney Olympic
AAI Games
The AAI Games took place at the National Indoor Arena in Blanchardstown today.
In the 1500m today we saw the huge efforts in training pay off for Roisin O'Reilly as she reaps the benefits of her recent training plan. A PB of 4.36.80 over 1500m was her justified reward as her dedication paid off and plenty more to come from this ever improving athlete.
Over 200m Clodagh Dunbar has never broken 27 seconds. Until today. Another dedicated athlete who puts so much into her training today saw the results of all that effort claiming a huge PB over 200m in 26.87 seconds.
The 60m sprint saw Michael Deady suffer an unfortunate DQ in his first 60m, then in his second 60m he crossed the line in 7.44 for 5th in his heat.
