Report by Ruairi Egan

Photos by Derek Costello

The annual Mallow 10 mile was the big race of the weekend and was well supported by Eagles with 34 making the trip. In near perfect weather conditions, some great times & PBs were recorded.

Leading home the Eagle challenge was Alan O’Brien running an incredible PB time of 52’41, placing 5th overall out of 1,500 runners and winning his M35 category.

Next back was Damian Kenneally, also with a PB and Mark Smith was the 3rd Eagle. Karen Bevan was our first lady home, smashing through the 70 minute mark for the first time with a very impressive 69.32, well done to Karen.

 

Apart from Alan, we had Eagles win the M50 and M70 categories, Tony Cambridge & Richard Piotrowski respectively, and Tom Fox took 2nd M50.

Well done to everyone, full details below. Hard luck to those who planned to make it but got injured along the way. Nice to see a few members out on the route supporting as well, always a great help when the going gets tough.
Finally, a couple of members used the race to pace clubmates to target times and it’s great to see that happening. We used to have a “Race buddy” system some years back and it’s worth keeping in mind if there’s a race that you might not be targeting where you could help out another member. So well done to Mark & Darren for their successful outings as “unofficial” pacers.

Results:

37 Eagle AC members took part in this year’s County Road Championships on what was a very successful day for the club.

8 members took part in the women’s race with Annemarie Power leading the team home in a great time of  26.03. Annemarie’s run earned her a silver medal in the F45 category. Karen Bevan won her first County Roads medal when finishing 3rd F40 and Anne Lucey Murphy also picked up a medal when finishing 2nd F60.

In the men’s race 29 members took part. Alan O Brien was 2nd home overall in a time of 20.06. He was followed soon after by Mark Smith who was 4th to cross the line in 20.41.

Plenty of individual medals were won in the men’s race. Alan picked up medals for 2nd masters and 2nd M35. Damian Kenneally won a bronze novice medal. Mark Smith picked up gold in the M40 category. In the M50 category Pat O’Connor won silver with Tom Fox taking bronze. Pat Twomey claimed silver in the M65 category with Richard Piotrowski winning gold in the M70 category.

More good news on the team front with the men picking up gold in both the M35 and M50  team categories. Alan O’Brien, Mark Smith, Damian Kenneally and Mark Murphy were the scoring members of the M35 team with Pat O’Connor, Tom Fox and Tony Cambridge scoring for the M50 team.

As well as the medal winning performances there were plenty of other great runs from Eagle AC members on the day. Lots of PB’S! It was also great to see club members who have been out of action in recent months due to injury back running and wearing the Eagle AC singlet again- great to see Tracy Cotter, Colin O’Herlihy and Ray Harrington back in action!

Overall, a very successful day for the club and great to see such a large turnout representing Eagle AC.

 

Results 

7. Anne Marie Power F45/Nov 26.03
14. Karen Bevan F40/Nov 27.06
19. Elaine Guinane F40/Nov 27.43
27. Helen Cronin F35/Nov 28.50
29. Olga O’Sullivan F40/Nov 29.09
31. Mairead Lonergan Nov 29.17
40. Tracy Cotter F35/Nov 31.07
60. Anne Lucey Murphy F60 37.31

Novice Womens Team

4. Eagle AC (5,12,17,26) 60 Points

Masters Women F35 Team

4. Eagle AC (5,10,15,23) 53 Points

2. Alan O’Brien M35 20.16
4. Mark Smith M40 20.41
7. Damian Kenneally M35/Nov 21.22
29. Pat O’Connor M50/Nov 23.42
30. Mark Murphy M35/NoV 23.44
32. Mike Forde M35/Nov 23.50
33. Tom Fox M50/Nov 23.52
36. Tony Cambridge M50/Nov 24.06
38. Darren Casey M40/Nov 24.16
53. John Dunphy M50/Nov 25.45
64. Ruairi Egan M50 26.32
65. Finbarr Lehane M45 26.34
68. Ray Harrington M40/Nov 26.43
69. Ian Roche M40 26.46
70. Michael O’Connor M35 26.49
77. Richard Piotrowski M70 27.30
83. Denis Carroll M55/Nov 28.31
85. Pat Twomey M65 28.41
86. Joe Murphy M60 28.49
87. Ken Nyhan M40 28.52
90. Charlie Byrd M50 28.58
91. John Swanton M35 29.09
92. Colin O’Herlihy M45 29.10
99. Tony Merritt M50 29.26
102. Andrew O’Farrell M65 29.32
104. Eddie Trindle M40 29.37
105. Denis Looney M50 30.13
106. Ken Higgs M65 30.22
107. Pat Murphy M60 30.27

Novice Mens Team

4. Eagle AC (3,21,22,23) 69 Points

Masters Men M35 Team

1. Eagle AC (2,4,6,23) 35 Points

Masters Men M50 Team

1. Eagle AC (22,26,29) 77 Points

Report written by Neil Kingston

Three Eagles represented the club at the National Indoor Masters Track and Field Championships in Athone on Sunday and came away with five medals – 2 gold, 1 silver and 2 bronze.

Results summary:

Hugh McSweeney – M70 1st 60m 9.29; 200m 1st 31.27
Ken Higgs – M65 200m 3rd 31.58; 400m 2nd 1:09.65; 800m 4th 2:56.71
Neil Kingston – M45 400m 4th 58.17; 800m 3rd 2:11.67

When you arrive inside the arena in Athlone you can see the venue is
top class, when you run on the track you can tell why such fast
times are being run there so it was a great experience to race on it.
I wonder what times my childhood hero Eamonn Coghlan the “Chairman of
the Boards” himself would have run for the mile on a track like that.

First of the Eagles to go on the day, Hugh looked the part as he got
himself set in the blocks for the 60. After pushing his main rival
right to the line for the Munster title in Nenagh recently the rematch
was on and the tension was high. As we so often see in the Olympics
and Diamond League, and especially in the 60m indoor competitions,
every millisecond counts in the short sprints and a good start from
the blocks is essential. The atmosphere in the arena was one of high
drama as Hugh’s rival false started and was disqualified.

At the ripe young age of 69, Ken ran his age in seconds the 400 and took the silver medal. He didn’t believe me when I told him that this is quite an extraordinary
achievement so well done Ken. Think about it, how many 50 years olds
can run 50 seconds or 80 year olds can run 80 seconds? See more here
http:www.speedendurance.com/2013/09/17/the-400-meters-run-your-age-club

For myself, this was another great learning experience in my second
year racing track and first time racing an 800 indoors. While I didn’t
match my medal haul from the national outdoors in Tullamore last
August I was more than happy to run 2 PBs on the day. There was some
drama in my own events as there was a question over residency and
eligibility for national medals of another runner. So having finished
in 4th and 5th place in the 800m and 400m races, I ended up being
bumped up a position in both races, and I have the 800m bronze to
prove it!

I ran a half marathon in December and a 60m sprint in February so in the last
few months I have experienced almost the full range of distances….for
me there is nothing that compares with racing the 400 and 800 indoors,
apart from the 400 and 800 outdoors 🙂 I definitely think the short
sprints are a lot of fun… if you are more of the endurance type and
fancy trying something just a little shorter and quicker than a 5k,
I’d imagine it would be a great experience to run a 3k on the boards
without having to contend with wind, rain and cold!

So that’s the end of the indoor season on the domestic front and
Hugh’s two wins put him clearly top of the club medals table this
year. Hugh still has the World Championships to look forward to in
Poland later this month! Best of luck to you there Hugh, no doubt
you’ll don the Irish vest with pride.

Six Eagle AC members headed to Dundrum, Co Tipperary last weekend for the Munster Road Championships. Tony Cambridge, John Sheehan, Tom Fox, John Dunphy, Andrew O’ Farrell and Denis Looney all took on the 4 mile route in what were wet and cold conditions.

The club finished 2nd M50 team on the day. A brilliant result which earned them Munster silver medals! The scoring members were Tony (4th M50) , John Sheehan ( 7th M50) and Tom ( 9th M50) . Tony and John also were scoring members of the Cork team which claimed 2nd M50 County team.

Andrew O’Farrell had a great run also, finishing 2nd M65, just a week before he takes on the Barcelona Marathon!

Well done to all who took part and represented the club on the day. Great results!

46. Tony Cambridge (4th M50)
47. John Sheehan  (7th M50)
48. Tom Fox (9th M50)
49. John Dunphy (12th M50)
50. Andrew O’Farrell (2nd M65)
51. Denis Looney (13th M50)

(Thanks to Niall Moran and Denis Looney for photographs of the day)