It was a terrific weekend for the our junior and juvenile athletes with the announcement that Alex Clarkin (110h) and Aoife Lynch (200m) had both been selected to represent Ireland in the European Youth Championships in Tbilisi, Georgia (July 14 – 17). Hopefully this will be their first of many Irish caps. In Tullamore Sean Lawlor continued on his winning ways when he added another National title to his list with winning the Junior mens 100m in 10.84 also getting selected for the World Under Championships in Bydgoszcz, Poland as part of the 4×100 mens relay team. Zak Higgins had a great run in the junior mens 400m placing 3rd with Paul McDermot placing 2nd in the 200m and Oran O’Brien placing 3rd in the 35lb weight. Well done to all and best of luck to our 3 athletes who will represent Ireland later in the month, we are all very proud of your achievements. Well done also to coaches coaches John Geoghan, Paul Clarkin and Gerry Ronan.
John Travers made the trip to the Danny McDaid Athletics Track in Letterkenny, Co. Donegal. The race was won by Englishman Lee Emanuel in a time of 3:59:66 with John running 4:05:79 to finish 6th.
Elsewhere, Fergal Whitty had a great run at the Achill Half Marathon where he finished 2nd in 01:16:41. Also running were some of our Fit4life athletes who are coached under the guidance of Barry Potts. Neil Maddox was first home in 01:42:24 with Anne Rushe 01:55:16, Cariosa Walsh 02:13:11 and Anna MacMahon 02:24:11. Anne’s husband Rory Campbell also ran a fine race when he finished 5th in 01:22:37.
In the Clonee 10K last Friday night Donore were well represented. Anthony Flannery (34:20) and Sean Fox (34:22) lead the charge for the club and finished in 7th and 8th respectively. Other results were as follows: 32nd Alastire Brown 37:31, 33rd Shane Russell 37:33, 38th Declan Lynch 38:09, 73rd Ken McKeown 41:22 and 109th Jill Dempsey 44:53. Well done to all.
On Saturday in the Irish Runner Paced Miles (Phoenix Park) Oliver Hopkins ran 06:33 with Dad Graham on his shoulder also running 06:33 with Barbara Hopkins running 09:03. Terry Mee ran 06:37.
Earlier in the week Alma Hanevy was a close 2nd woman in the very wet 5k BHAA trail race in the Phoenix park in a time of 20.16 and she was 28th overall. Terry Mee won the m70 class in 23.52.
Saturday also saw the staging of the Inaugural Donore Pub Run which started out from the club at 4pm, taking in the Villager, Myos, The Hole in the Wall and finished in The Mullingar House. It was a great event and about 40 Donore members took part. A big thank you to those that hatched the plan (Ken and Joe, I think) also a big thank you to Alan who organised it and thank you to Ash from Run Logic and Peter who along with Ash cycled forth and got the beers in. Looking forward to next years event already!