On Sunday the Carra Classic 8k was won by John Byrne (Mayo AC ) in 27:29 - the first woman home was Kathy Gleeson (Claremorris ) in 30:56. The Carra Classic is part of the Great Lakes series of spring races and 160 competitors made it to the finish line.
Also on Sunday, there was some some brilliant news about Mayo native Sinéad Diver, she runs for Australia and was taking part in the Women's Marathon in Nagoya, Japan, where she finished in 10th place in a highly competitive field and was one of only two non Japanese runners to finish in the top 10, alongside Olympic silver medallist Eunice Kirwa. Her finishing time of 2:21:37 knocked almost two and half minutes off her previous personal best time. Over the course of the race, Diver moved from 28th at the 10k stage, to 20th at the 20k marker, before finishing in 10th place. She ran 5k splits of 17:46, 17:44, 18:01, 17:44, 17:50, 18:10, 18:19, 18:21, and 7:42 for the final 2.2k. Diver represented Australia in the marathon at the World Championships in Beijing in 2015 when she finished in 2:36. This performance in Nagoya puts her in a very strong position to represent Australia again at the IAAF World Athletics Championships in London next August.
Mayo County Athletics Board AGM
The annual general meeting of Mayo Athletics County Board took place in Breaffy House Hotel, Castlebar, recently. The following officers were elected for the coming year. Chairperson: Sean O'Connell (Lake District ), vice-chairperson: Breifne Gannon (Aughagower ), secretary: Amanda Hynes (Swinford ), assistant secretary: Joe O'Dea (Claremorris ), competition secretary: Marion Mattimoe (Swinford treasurer ), David Sheridan (Westport ), assistant treasurer: Marion Mattimoe, (Swinford ), PRO: Marion Mattimoe (Swinford ), and child welfare officers: Elizabeth Murphy (Ballina ) and Alan Bracken (Swinford ).
