Donore Harriers runners are continuing to make their presence felt on the road race circuit around Leinster with some impressive performances in the last week. Chief of these was a Donore 1-2-3 by the men’s team in the Celbridge 5k. Mark Dooley, now back living in Ireland was the decisive winner in 15.29. In second place was men’s captain John Dunne in 15.50 and the ever improving Sam Allen in 15.54 to take 3rd. Ciaran McCarthy finished in 16.33. The men’s team were the clear winners. Karen Behan was one of the 2 Donore ladies competing and ran 20.43 knocking 10 seconds off her 5k time in Athboy a week before and well done to
Michael Gibbs 17.33
Colin Moore 21.29
Dave Hudson 24.28
Laura Murray 26,00
Midweek it was the turn of the ladies to have a team win in the Castlepollard 5k in Westmeath. Sorcha Nic Dhomhnaill was 2nd lady in 18.01 and Ashling Swaine 4th in 18.21. New member Amy Dodd got another 5k PB in 20.33 and this secured a team win for the ladies. First man home was Feargal Swaine in 17.05 and well done Henry English 19.21.
At the Duleek 10k in Meath, Shane McAuley secured a PB in 36.43 and 15th place. Grainne Nolan finished in 43.55, Sinead Finn 45.25, Eilish Joyce 52.57 and Siobhra McCarthy 59.16.
On the track, the last meeting of the Drogheda and District AC graded series took place in Lourdes Stadium and some Donore runners made the journey for the Wednesday night event which saw mixed male and female races for each distance. Mark Dooley won the 3000m in 9.05.68, Kevin Nolan 9.59.75. Ide Nic Dhomhnaill was the 2nd female finisher in that race in 10.40.83 and new to the track Colm Mullen ran 5.13.10 to come 8th in the 1500m race 3.
There was more good news for some of our young endurance runners when Athletics Ireland announced its provincial junior endurance squads and making the cut for the Leinster squad are Louis O’Loughlin, Fathi Aden and Sekeyere Ahmed who have had numerous successes over the past year and in Louis’ case have already represented Ireland a few times already. Well done to all.