Mary Horgan sets new Masters 800m Irish record

11/7/2021

Mary Horgan

We are all in awe of Mary Horgan who, this season and following maternity leave, has gone from strength to strength, each race it seems going faster each time. On Saturday, she returned to the track where she set her first PB of the season in May, in Belfast, this time to run in the North Belfast Harriers-organised Afternoon of 800s and 1500s. Mary’s most recent PB in the 800m was 2:08 and change, but on Saturday she made the most impressive leap to a new PB and new Irish record for Irish masters of 2:05.28, breaking the previous record, set incidentally in 2016 on the same track (which now seems to have a reputation for producing fast times) by Lisburn’s Kelly Neely of 2:05.56. Coincidentally, Kelly was in the same race as Mary, running in a higher age category, and finishing some 4s behind the Crusader, but also recording a new W40 age record for the distance. On a warm and windless afternoon on the sheltered Mary Peters track, Mary managed to hang in the middle of a leading group of 5 runners that formed with about 200m to go with the field effectively led from gun to tape by Katie Kirk showing a fine demonstration of hard front running (and initially paced well by Rachel McCann who gave the race a major boost with a 60s first lap). In illustrious company, Mary managed to hold on to 5th place, finishing inside 2s of the race winner’s time and breaking the record. A super achievement and many congratulations to her!

Staying with the track, the third graded meet organised by Dublin athletics took place on Wednesday evening on the track in Tallaght. The athletes would have been delighted that they hadn’t had to run the evening before when those of us training in Irishtown had to deal with biblical monsoon conditions.

We had a good turnout from the club for the event which, on the track, was an evening of 1500m and 5000m races. In the women’s B11500m, Sarah Lyons ran strongly for 9th place in a field of 14 to record a time of 5:01.49, narrowly missing out on 8th place. Kate O’Malley followed in 11th place in 5:05.92, with Rachael Yorke, who is gradually coming back into form, placing 12th in 5:22.22. Léa Braud could have benefitted from running in the B1 race with Sarah and Kate, but still managed to finish in 2nd place in the BC1 grade with what might be a PB time of 5:07.16. Ciara Lynch also ran well to finish with a time of 5:22 in 4th place (although her result is missing on the official record), followed by Miriam Logan who definitely got a PB with her time of 5:37.56 to place 7th in a field of 9.

Once again, Henry Griffin ran on the night in the men’s C1 grade of the 1500m, finishing just behind ex-Crusader Brian Carroll (now with Lucan). Henry ran 4:42.77 to place 4th and Brian ran 4:40.38. In the CD1 event, Luke Davis ran a similar time to Henry, finishing in 3rd place in 4:42.97, followed by Brendan Glynn, suffering from fatigue after his Covid jab a couple of days previously, who ran 5:45.06. Paul Kelly took on the D1 graded 1500m, finishing in a time of 7:30.27.

We then had several athletes participate in the 5000m events. In the women’s ABC1 race, won by Donore’s Barbara Cleary in 16:58.77, Niamh Allen made a super return, placing 2nd in 17:19.53, well ahead of Maria McCambridge in 3rd who ran 17:54.81. Slightly under the weather, Maura Mahoney still managed to record 20:08.16 for 7th place, with Isabelle Cairns running 20:54.68 to take 8th spot in the 13-strong field. Ciarain Kelly ran well to finish in a time of 17:17.83 in the men’s AB1 event, whilst 3 other Crusaders ran in the C1 graded race, with Adam Flanagan taking 2nd place in 17:06.30, followed by Frank Hague (9th in 17:44.03) and newcomer, Enda Clarke, taking 10th place in the 14-man field in a time of 17:44.05. Congrats to all who took part in another successful evening.

The initial version of this report had indicated that only road race we are currently aware of that took place in the last 7 days and involving a member of this club, was in Italy, where our exile, Italo Giancaterina, took part in the Recanati 10k, finishing in a creditable 2nd place with a super PB time of 33:13.85.It now appears that this was equally a track race, so we had no road races on which to report in the end!

So taking to the high ground, there have been more events organised by IMRA this week, although we only have results for one of them. Again, down in Co. Wicklow, there was a midweek race arranged, this time up to Maulin via Crone Wood from the Powerscourt waterfall. The race involved a large loop, taking in the summit of Maulin, but mostly in woodland. The terrain was otherwise described as difficult, as can be seen from some of the photos of the event. The race distance was 10.5k with a climb of 572m. In the field of 157, we had 5 runners. The overall race was won by Enda Cloake in 54:17 from Barry Minnock in 54:56, but the women’s race was won by our Becky Quinn who placed 37th overall in a time of 65:08. Our first runner home was actually Kevin Darcy who placed 25th in 62:01, followed by Donatas Jocius just behind in 26th in 62:22. Next came Becky, followed by Brian McGuckin in 41st position overall and 4th M50 with a time of 66:27. Gavan Doherty was the 5th runner in the group, finishing in 135th place with a time of 91:02.

If anything has been missed please let us know and the report can be updated.

Coillte Crone Caper (IMRA race) (157)
Overall place Name Cat. Place Guntime
1 Enda Cloake 1 00:54:17
37 Becky Quinn 1 01:05:08
Crusaders AC runners
25 Kevin Darcy 01:02:01
26 Donatas Jocius 01:02:22
37 Becky Quinn 01:05:08 (1)
41 Brian McGuckin 01:06:27
135 Gavan Doherty 01:31:02
Full results here: https://www.imra.ie/events/results/id/2095