It was an exciting and successful weekend for three Mayo AC members competing in three different countries.
The story began at The Oceania Athletics Championships which took place during last week in Townsville, a coastal city in northeastern Queensland, Australia, where Sinéad Diver won the women’s 10,000 metres in 32:25, finishing four seconds ahead of fellow Australian international, Ellie Pashley.
Sinéad’s time was just over 30 seconds outside her 10,000 metres personal best of 31:50 set last December in Melbourne. It’s a significant indicator of her continuing good form since her brilliant 2:24 seventh place finish in the London Marathon in April.
On Saturday the 10th annual Ransboro 10k took place. It’s an undulating 10k course, Norah Newcombe-Pieterse (Mayo AC ) won the women’s race in 38:16, finishing in 11th place overall and continuing a successful season of victories. She was well clear of Caoimhe McDermott in second and Deirdre Norton in third place in the women's race.
After Sinéad’s 10,000 metres victory in Townsville and Norah’s 10k win in Ransboro, another Mayo AC champion – masters track and field star, Patrick Moran, travelled over on Friday last to compete in the British Masters Combined Events Championships.
It wasn’t a straightforward journey for Patrick which included two overnight stops in Manchester – the championships took place at Costello Stadium, a multi use venue in Kingston-upon-Hull. Patrick won silver M60 in the 2018 championships in Sheffield and he returned this year with hopes of emulating that brilliant performance.
Last weekend he took on the decathlon challenge again, ten events over two days. In the 100m he ran 15.09 seconds - a personal best; in the long jump he jumped 3.72 meters; in the high jump he jumped 1.28, then in the 400m he put in a time of 73.1 seconds, then in the 80m hurdles he ran 23.7 seconds. Next up was the discus where he threw for a distance of 24.68m; in the pole vault he jumped 1.3 meters and in the javelin he threw 18.89m before wrapping it up with a 6:35 time in the 1,500 meters. That all added up to a total of 3887 points - enough to claim the M60 gold medal for the event.
Conway and Tuohy are Castlebar Greenway 10 mile winners
The Castlebar Greenway 10 mile race hosted by Mayo AC took place recently. The event was first held by Mayo AC last September and this year’s race followed the same general pattern.
The out and back 10 mile course started and finished at Castlebar town park and included eight miles of flat traffic free terrain along the Greenway, criss crossing bridges over the Castlebar river, and a two mile more challenging loop on public roads through Turlough village via the Round Tower.
Running conditions were good though light rain fell throughout. Two in-form athletes contested the lead from the start. Brendan Conway (Westport AC ) had an excellent recent Mayo AC 5k series with top three finishes, and finished second in the Run for the 10k.
Brendan took over the lead from about 11k and came home the decisive winner in 56:19, with Michael finishing in 59:49. John Byrne (Mayo AC ) won this race last year in 59:17. It was Brendan Conway’s first 10 miler – he’s a keen marathoner. Francis Cryan (Westport AC ) ran well for third place in 63:13 – he only decided to take part half an hour before the 10.00 am start. Michael Rocke was Mayo AC’s first finisher in fourth place in 64:31, followed by John Gordon 64:39 first 040, and Tony O’Malley 68:12.
Colette Tuohy (Mayo AC ) – second last year- was the first woman home with another consistently paced run in 68:57. Clubmate Pauline Moran W60 was second in a brilliant 71:13, a great time – she ran 73:54 here last year. Jackie Fleming of newly formed East Mayo AC was third in 74:24. She ran 74:36 in the Run West Ballyhaunis 10. Paula Donnellan Walsh was third Mayo AC finisher in 76:02 – 30 seconds faster than Run West 10.
