Fast and furious on the roads of Castlepollard and the track in Tullamore. Great results for Brian O’Kelly.

19/8/2019

Brian O'Kelly

The National Masters’ Track and Field Championships took place on a wet Sunday in Tullamore and Brian O’Kelly had a super outing, winning the O/35 5,000m, following a podium finish earlier in the week over the same distance, but on roads, in Castlepollard. Brian won in a time of 15:32. Brian was joined in the championships by John O'Loughlin and Jeremy Tucker, both of whom also picked up medals. Indeed, John's was a veritable trove of silvers as he placed 2nd in his age category in all 3 events in which he competed: with times of 12.52 for the 100m, 26.41 for the 200m and 59.50 for the 400m. Jeremy also picked up silver in the javelin, where in his 2nd throw of the contest, he achieved a distance of 36.84m. Well done to all three athletes.

Earlier in the week, on Wednesday evening, Brian and Kevin Lambe joined 370 other runners in the latest edition of the Kia Race series. This was the Castlepollard 5k hosted by North Westmeath AC. In a quality field Brian greatly distinguished himself, placing 2nd to DSD’s Hiko Tonosa in a great time of 15:06, whilst Kevin took 61st place in the gloam, demonstrating how far he has come recently by knocking 4 minutes off the time he recorded in the same event last year, finishing in 19:49.

On Saturday, Stephen Hurley pulled off a similar result to that of Brian, finishing also in 2nd place in the 2019 edition of the Run the Ridge mixed mountain and trail 20km run in Co Wicklow, which involved a route starting and finishing in Laragh and taking in the Derrybawn Ridge. Stephen’s time was 1:41:10, only 6 seconds behind race winner Robin Mooney, in a field of 76 competitors.

Then, on Sunday morning, on a damp day everywhere, we had at least 8 runners in the Kilcock 10 miler. Race winner Sean Hehir declared that it was his fastest 10 mile race in recent years, which gives him some encouragement for upcoming challenges, which no doubt include the marathon, and the fast pace of the relatively flat course can be seen in the overall results. Sean ran 49:45 and women’s race winner, Niamh Devlin, recorded 61:11, just 19 seconds ahead of Donore’s Sinead Lambe. Our first runner home was Andrea Talpo who ran a satisfying 64:34 to place 57th in a field of 620 and he was followed by Pat Quill who ran 69:36 for 101st place. Hot on Pat’s heels came Katie McElroy (106th overall and 12th female finisher, in the same chiptime). Phelim Murray was next (146th in 72:46) and he was followed by Conor Parle (158th in 73:35). Olwyn Dunne wasn’t too far behind to cross the line, coming home in 77:14 for 206th place overall (41st female and 6th F50), having declared it to be a training run and slightly further back came Kate Murray (255th and 57th in 79:51). Carina Davidson completed the picture (273rd and 62nd) finishing in a time of 82:03.

Apart from the Run the Ridge Run, there was one other race involving club members in the mountains last week. IMRA organised a handicap race in the Dublin Mountains where the start times were based on runners’ previous results. In the event, we had two of our colleagues who ran alongside 85 other competitors. Gavan Doherty placed 26th in the 7.62km race involving a 443m difficult climb over Tonelagee and his time was 52:04, whilst Berndt Heim placed 64th in 62:40.

Further afield, we had at least two ultra runners competing over the weekend. Leo Lundy completed his 100th in the Two Tunnels race in Bath, where he had to run 20k of the 50k distance underground in disused steam train tunnels. Congrats to him. Meanwhile, one of our exiles in Canada (and there are now at least two!), Ian Kinsella, placed 6th in a 50k event in Squamish, British Columbia, which, from the photos, included stair climbing. Even further away, Donnacha McCarthy, our visually impaired clubmate who is also a triathlete, represented Ireland taking part in the 2019 Tokyo ITU Paratriathlon World Cup, where along with his guide Bryan McCrystal, he placed 6th in his event, an excellent achievement in extremely warm and humid conditions. Many congrats to them both!

As usual, we had some excellent results from the various parkruns in which club members participated on Saturday morning. A first place finish was recorded by the ever-improving Katie Rogers in Poolbeg where she placed 10th overall with a time of 19:48 (the 10th fastest time by a woman in a parkrun in Ireland on the day). Aine Kenny (24th overall in 21:24) placed 2nd in the same event. In Fairview, Peter O’Toole was another first finisher where he ran 19:16. Anthony Owens was in the same event, placing 28th in 26:23. Another podium place went to Diarmuid Byrne in Poppintree where he ran 19:26 for 3rd, whist Fiona and Lisa Shine came close on Wexford Racecourse, where Fiona placed 4th (38th overall) in 25:47, with Lisa right behind in 5th (39th overall) in 25:48. Mairin and Anna Shine also ran in Wexford, where they respectively placed 87th and 105th overall (33rd and 45th) in 33:09 and 37:48. In Edinburgh Andrej Kujikis placed 386th out of a huge field of 850 in a time of 26:12, whilst Luke Davis took 11th spot in Marlay in 19:35, followed by Darina Scully (305th and 96th in 29:35). Paul F. Kelly ran in Tymon where he placed 73rd in 29:11, whilst Olwyn Dune ran in Cabinteely once again, where she placed 75th and 14th in 27:38. Gillian Curran ran well in Limerick where she placed 51st and 10th in 25:54, whilst David O’Donnell also had an excellent outing in Dungloe where he placed 5th in 21:40. Brian Scanlan took on River Valley again, coming home in 8th position in a time of 22:48, whilst we had 2 runners in Glengariff. Cormac McGuire placed 13th in 23:01, followed by Mairead Cashman (66th and 24th in 32:02). Finally, Katie and Aine were joined by at least 7 other Crusaders in Poolbeg. Thomas Martini added the parkrun to a training outing and placed 15th in 20:30 and he was followed by Dave Tuohy who crossed the line in 18th in 20:42. Further down the field came John Lohan and his wife Tara Murphy. John placed 44th in 22:54, whilst Tara came home in 55th and 10th in 23:56. Later, they were followed by Aoife Cowhie (90th and 22nd in 25:40), Maureen McGinley (128th and 39th in 29:22) and Mari Hansen (131st and 41st in 30:00).

Castlepollard 5k (372)
Overall Place Name Cat. Place Chiptime
1 Hiko Tonosa 1 00:14:48
16 Sinead O’Connor 1 00:16:49
Crusaders AC runners
2 Brian O’Kelly 00:15:06
61 Kevin Lambe 00:19:49
Full results here: https://www.popupraces.ie/race/castlepollard-5k-2019/
Kilcock 10 from 10 (620)
Overall Place Name Cat. Place Chiptime
1 Sean Hehir 1 00:49:45
34 Niamh Devlin 1 01:01:11
Crusaders AC runners
57 Andrea Talpo 01:04:34
101 Pat Quill 01:09:36
106 Katie McElroy 01:09:36 (12)
146 Phelim Murray 01:12:46
158 Conor Parle 01:13:35
206 Olwyn Dunne 01:17:14 (41)
255 Kate Murray 01:19:51 (57)
273 Carina Davidson 01:22:03 (62)
Full results here: https://www.myrunresults.com/events/kilcock_10_from_10/2926/results
Run the Ridge 20K (76)
Overall Place Name Cat. Place Chiptime
1 Robin Mooney 1 01:41:04
12 Linda O’Connor 1 01:51:45
Crusaders AC runner
2 Stephen Hurley 01:41:10
Full results here: https://www.myrunresults.com/events/run_the_ridge_2019/3092/results
IMRA Glenmacnass Handicap 7.62km (87)
Overall Place Name Cat. Place Guntime
1 Trevor Kerley 1 00:47:14
5 Miriam Maher 1 00:47:55
Crusaders AC runners
26 Gavan Doherty 00:52:04
64 Berndt Heim 01:02:40
Full results here: https://www.imra.ie/events/results/id/1762/
Marlay Parkrun #315 (471)
Overall Place Name Cat. Place Chiptime
1 Timothy Bowde 1 00:16:47
32 Ailish Reid 1 00:21:17
Crusaders AC runners
11 Luke Davis 00:19:35
305 Darina Scully 00:29:35 (96)
Full results here: https://www.parkrun.ie/marlay/results/weeklyresults/?runSeqNumber=315
Tymon Parkrun #268 (113)
Overall Place Name Cat. Place Chiptime
1 Eleanor Alexader 1 00:18:54
2 Brendan O’Hanlon 1 00:19:30
Crusaders AC runner
73 Paul F. Kelly 00:29:11
Full results here: https://www.parkrun.ie/tymon/results/weeklyresults/?runSeqNumber=268
Limerick Parkrun #184 (131)
Overall Place Name Cat. Place Chiptime
1 Ian McQuate 1 00:18:08
7 Shona Ni Fhloinn 1 00:19:38
Crusaders AC runner
51 Gillian Curran 00:25:54 (10)
Full results here: https://www.parkrun.ie/limerick/results/weeklyresults/?runSeqNumber=131
Wexford Racecourse Parkrun #229 (125)
Overall Place Name Cat. Place Chiptime
1 Padraig Coone 1 00:18:42
9 Annaleigh Hore 1 00:22:28
Crusaders AC runners
38 Fiona shine 00:25:47 (4)
39 Lisa Shine 00:25:48 (5)
87 Mairin Shine 00:33:09 (33)
105 Anna Shine 00:37:48 (45)
Full results here: https://www.parkrun.ie/wexfordracecourse/results/weeklyresults/?runSeqNumber=229
Poppintree Parkrun #248 (133)
Overall Place Name Cat. Place Chiptime
1 Fergal Roche 1 00:18:41
9 Rachael McBride 1 00:21:56
Crusaders AC runner
3 Diarmuid Byrne 00:21:56
Full results here: https://www.parkrun.ie/poppintree/results/weeklyresults/?runSeqNumber=248
Glengariff Parkrun #182 (142)
Overall Place Name Cat. Place Chiptime
1 Lee Parker 1 00:19:27
15 Lauren O’Sullivan 1 00:23:21
Crusaders AC runners
13 Cormac McGuire 00:23:01
66 Mairead Cashman 00:32:02 (24)
Cabinteely Parkrun #226 (148)
Overall Place Name Cat. Place Chiptime
1 Ted Burke 1 00:19:30
28 Jessica Donohoe 1 00:22:59
Crusaders AC runner
75 Olwyn Dunne 00:27:38 (14)
Full results here: https://www.parkrun.ie/cabinteely/results/weeklyresults/?runSeqNumber=227
Dungloe Parkrun #176 (30)
Overall Place Name Cat. Place Chiptime
1 Sam Griffin 1 00:18:20
19 Breda Boyle 1 00:27:09
Crusaders AC runner
5 David O’Donnell 00:21:40
Full results here: https://www.parkrun.ie/dungloe/results/weeklyresults/?runSeqNumber=176
Fairview Parkrun #107 (138)
Overall Place Name Cat. Place Chiptime
1 Peter O’Toole 1 00:19:16
16 Clare Fitzpatrick 1 00:23:14
Crusaders AC runners
1 Peter O’Toole 00:19:16
28 Anthony Owens 00:26:23
Full results here: https://www.parkrun.ie/fairview/results/weeklyresults/?runSeqNumber=107
Poolbeg Parkrun #104 (173)
Overall Place Name Cat. Place Chiptime
1 John Higgins 1 00:17:07
10 Katie Rogers 1 00:19:48
Crusaders AC runners
10 Katie Rogers 00:19:48 (1)
15 Thomas Martini 00:20:30
18 Dave Tuohy 00:20:42
24 Aine Kenny 00:21:24 (2)
44 John Lohan 00:22:54
55 Tara Murphy 00:23:56 (10)
90 Aoife Cowhie 00:25:40 (22)
128 Maureen McGinley 00:29:22 (39)
131 Mari Hansen 00:30:00 (41)
Full results here: https://www.parkrun.ie/poolbeg/results/weeklyresults/?runSeqNumber=104
River Valley Parkrun #159 (128)
Overall Place Name Cat. Place Chiptime
1 Stephen Ryan 1 00:19:47
27 Emily Ralph 1 00:26:31
Crusaders AC runner
8 Brian Scanlan 00:22:48
Full results here: https://www.parkrun.ie/rivervalley/results/weeklyresults/?runSeqNumber=159