On Saturday night 27th Feb in the Tullamore court hotel we saw the best in Irish juvenile Athletics be awarded for their achievements throughout the year.

The national star award from AAI this year for Dublin was given to Louis O’Loughlin .Louis has been outstanding this year in cross county and later on in the year on the track .He won the minor boys schools cross country , both Dublin titles in cross country , the under 15 cross county title , placing 2nd in the under 16 and in this getting his first Ireland call up for the Celtic games which we are sure will be the first of many more appearances for Ireland . His talent does not stop at cross country in the outdoors after taking the Dublin 800 , 1500 title he also went on to take national titles in both in under 15 and just this past weekend a fantastic win in the SIAB international cross-country championships at Falkirk. Louis is a natural talent and a great team player . His future is looking good, from everyone at Donore harriers, a big  congratulations Louis on your star award.

National Senior Indoors

Ailbhe Healy made another breakthrough by winning Silver in the pole vault at the national senior indoor championships in Athlone.  She had a best vault of 2.70 metres.  Other notable performances were Lynda Tcheudji in the triple jump where she came 5th.  Sinead Lambe got a big PB in the 800m heats and Darragh Fitzgibbon got close to a 4 minutes 1500m which meant he qualified for the final on day 2.
There was no medal for John Travers on this occasion, he finished 6th in the 3000m.  Well done all, several athletes competed in 2 events.Karla Doran gold senior 1500m 4.54.71 and Lynda Ngakam senior bronze 60m 8.02 and the mens 4x200m won silver.

Full results

On the roads, Alma Hanevy had a super run in the Tokyo marathon on February with a PB of 3.14.50 and 1.36.51 in the Mullingar Half Marathon on St. Patricks day a nice warm up for her trip to, Boston to tick off another of the the World Marathon Majors!  Patrick Moriarty also ran in Mullingar, clocking 1.18.04.

On Saturday, February 27th, George Brady completed another marathon – the Lusk marathon in the East of Ireland series – and came 4th in 2.54.55 and new recruit Roisin Harkin was 3rd lady in the Ticknock IMRA winter race . On February 28th, Sorcha Nic Dhomhnaill ran very in the Adare 10k, finishing 3rd lady in 39.44 on a hilly course and Eilish Joyce ran 35.47 in the Stamullen Run 4 Enda 

On March 1st, Amy Moriarty was 1st woman in the Sandymount night run on a blustery evening by the sea in a time of 43.44

In the Lust for life 10km on March 5th, Declan Lynch came home in 39.58 and Florence Curley was 3rd woman in a time of 40.41 while John Dunne won the 5k with 16.20. In the final leg of the Meet and Train cross country league in Cherryfield park Firhouse the following day, Mary Murphy was first of 3 Donore runners home in 37th place with a strong second lap and next were Mary McDermott and Sue Lynch. At the Adamstown College 5k, George Brady finished in first place (17.03).

On the same weekend, BHAA hosted the final cross country race of the season where a number of Donore athletes turned out. In the ladies 2 mile race, Aisling Swaine continued her recent excellent form to finish second in 12.18, we also had Karen Behan (12th) in 13.46 and Ann Woodlock 44th (17.45)
In the men’s 4 mile race Fergal Whitty was first home (6th / 1st M40) 22.16, Phil Hennessey (8th / 1st M45) 22.26, Chris Muldoon (21st) 23.51, Tom fagan (46th) 26.11, Barry Potts (56th / 1st M65) 26.58, Terry Mee (112 / 1st M70) 31.05, Charlie O’Neill (120th) 32.17.

In the Ballycotton 10 on the same weekend, Donore had another good travelling group, with 11 athletes competing in the popular Cork race.

On March 12th in the Cara Bundoran 10 mile Cariosa Walsh 1.36.33. The following day was the popular Bohermeen Half Marathon and 10k, Kim Hickey was our sole competitor in the 10k and Kim ran a fantastic race to finish as first lady in 39.05, while 8 runners competed in the half marathon.

At the National Juvenile Indoor Championships on the same weekend. Louis O’Loughlin won the under 16’s 1500m. Suzanne Masterson, Eliza NiThighearnaigh (both u/18s) and Paul O’Neill (u/19s) all competed in 1,500m finals also. Sekeriye Ahmed (u/17s) ran in the 1,500m semi-final. Caoimhe Mackey and Clodagh Martin (both u/18s) competed in the semi-finals of the 400m.

Donore were well represented in the 60m sprints , with u/17s Kolade, Max and Jordon all running well in their heats, but, unfortunately, not progressing to finals . In u/17 girls suzi and Robyn ran well but missed out on a place in the final. Aoife Lynch made it to final of her event, the under 18 60m final after posting a pb of 7.93. Aoife finished in an excellent 5th place in the final again running 7.96 in a race were a new CBP and youth record was set. Our only male athlete making it to the final was Paul Mc Dermot under 19 finishing in 4th place . On a day when there was 15 championship best performances, it was down to girls under 19 Ailbhe Healy to take our second medal of the day in taking the gold in a pb of 3 metres and a CBP in pole vault.

On Day 2,  we had athletes competing from under 13 to under 19 in various events through out the day . Our youngest was Sean Kinsealla in the 600. In the under 16 Jack Raftery and under 18 Gabhan O’Tighearnaigh competed in high jump.

In the 200 Max Carey, Jordon Dunne, Suzi O’Farrell Robyn O’Keeffe all did well in heats but did not progress to finals. While in the same event Paul Mc Dermot under 19 and under 18 Aoife Lynch made it to their finals. Paul finished an excellent 3rd in his final and Aoife finsihed just outside the medals in 4th place.

In long jump, competing for the first time for the club, Andie McGuire (under 17) posted a pb of 4.65 and finished 6th overall. After a disappointing day 1 for Kolade Abiodun he made up for it in day 2 with a new pb in long jump,  jumping 6.19 to take 3rd place.

Later in the day , in the last dramatic race of the day Kolade took 2nd place in the 60m hurdles. Also in the hurdles, we had Ciara O’Donnell with a pb making her first indoor final . Angie Gonia also made it to under 16 final with a new pb and both Roisín Rynn and Lauren Kennedy made it finals.

In the 800m under 18 girls, Caoimhe , Clodagh and Lucy were all competing. The performance of the day had to go to under 16 Louis O’Loughlin who after winning the 1500m on Saturday, went on to win the 800m in great style and our third gold medal of this championship

In the Balbriggan 10k on St. Patricks Day, Barbara Murray was first lady (40.06).

At last weekends popular MSB 5K, Donore had a fantastic turnout with many athlete returning to racing in honour of our late coach Jim McNamara in one of his favourite races. First home for Donore was Darragh Fitzgibbon finishing in 6th place in 15.16.

In the Clongowes 5km at Clane Michael Gibbs (17.34) placed 16th overall and Lucy McCann (20.15) in 41st and 7th female finisher. 

On day 3 of the Juvenile Indoor Championships in Athlone, Oran O’Brien was delighted with his 3rd place in the under 19 shot putt having recently returned from injury, he had two throws over 11 metres.

Up next were our under 19 4 x 200 girls who had a great run to take 2 nd place. Another great run by our under 17 girls saw them qualify for the final with a great last leg from Suzi O’Farrell, unfortunately Suzi picked up an injury and the team was unable to progress. Last up were our under 18 girls 4 x200 who ran a great race but did not progress to the final. I addition to this we had  Paul McDermott silver 200m 22.67, Zak Higgins 53.07 silver 400m, Jordan dunne 200m heats 23.8, Caoimhe Mackey 200m 4th 26.23 and Caoimhe 8th in 400m 64.48.

So another year has ended for the indoor season with a good haul of medals and some great performances.

In the Masters Indoor Championships, Anne Gormley won gold in the 3K walk.  Terry Mee m70 silver 800m (2.57.98) and 3000m (13.06) and Donal Iremonger 5th M45 800m (2.11.44)