31st Augusts 2008 - Results and Fixtures

WELCOME HOME PAULINE
The Irish Olympic team arrived into Dublin Airport last Tuesday and 53 club members along with members of her family travelled to welcome home the Offaly hero. It was another magical moment for Pauline as she stepped through the gates in the arrivals area to the loud cheers of club and family. The boxers may have brought home the medals but Pauline has achieved a personal lifetime ambition and Olympic memories she will never forget. She says the roar of 91,000 people in the Birds Nest stadium on her lap of the track at the end of the marathon will stay with her for ever. Later that evening she was welcomed to Tullamore at a reception in the Bridge House as family and friends paid tribute to her wonderful achievement. Pauline plan’s to take it easy over the next few weeks with plenty of easy runs to fully recover before she gets back to some serious racing. Well done Pauline and welcome home.

GOWRAN WIN FOR DECLAN FAHEY
On 27th July 1958 Noel Gowran won the National Marathon title in a record time of 2.39.23 and last Sunday the club honoured the 50th anniversey of Noel’s great win. Before the start of the annual Gowran Road Race Beijing Olympian Pauline Curley on behalf of the club with many of his family in attendance made a special presentation to Noel. Noel was one of the club’s founder members and has made a huge contribution to Tullamore Harriers as an athlete and administrator. The race was ran in bright sunny conditions and Declan Fahey led from start to finish coming very close to Andy Catton’s 1991 course record of 41.16. John Donegan continued to show his recent good form to take second place with Martin Carroll running on strong to take third place. Pauline Curley was having her first race since the Beijing Olympic Marathon and ran a very steady pace to finish 6th overall. Noel’s son Eanna ran the race in the very shoes his father ran in all of 50 years ago.

Result : 1 Declan Fahey 41.39, 2 John Donegan 44.39, 3 Martin Carroll 46.37, 4 Jody O’Reily 47.15, 5 Mick Murphy 47.31, 6 Pauline Curley 47.39, 7 Eanna Gowran 47.48, 8 Catch Grennan 48.37, 9 Liz Cuskelly 50.37, 10 Nick Devery (Guest) 51.05, 11 John O’Connell 52.06, 12 Joe Wrafter 52.37, 13 Maire-Triona Keane 53.37, 14 Anne Carroll 54.02, 15 Andy O’Grady 56.14, 16 Larry Rigney 58.30, 17 Mary Daly 58.30, 18 Deirdre Lambe 58.30, 19 Adrian Martin 58.30, 20 Jim Dolan 66.41, 21 Adrian Curley 66.41

NEWS ROUNDUP
August has been a very busy month for club athletes, starting with the Masters Track & Field held in Tullamore on Saturday 9th. Results on the day were Men : 100m V2 Mick Fleming 3rd 12.87, Gerry Kavanagh 7th 14.62, V6 Paddy Dolan 5th 14.86, 200m V2 Gerry Kavanagh 7th 29.39, 400m V1 Sean Sweeney 3rd 57.41, V2 Gerry Kavanagh 6th 68.24, V6 Paddy Dolan 3rd 67.92, 800m V1 Cach Grennan 2nd 2.04.83, Ronan Duffy 5th 2.10.79, 9th John Harkin 2.19.25, 1,500m V2 John Donegan 3rd 4.27.24, V7 Jim Langan 4th 7.01.28, 5,000m V3 Martin Carroll 9th 17.25.72, 5,000m Walk V5 Larry Rigney 3rd 32.46.70, Long Jump V5 Michael Flynn 1st 4.30, Discus V2 Tom Rafferty 3rd 33.81, Javelin V2 Tom Rafferty 2nd 42.25, V6 Paddy Dolan 3rd 25.73, 56lb for distance V2 Tom Rafferty 4th 5.67,High Jump V5 Michael Flynn 1st 1.35. Women : 200m V6 Mary Walsh 1st 36.61, 400m V6 Mary Walsh 1st 93.80, 800m V6 Mary Walsh 1st 3.21.60, 3,000m V1 Liz Cuskelly 1st 10.31.02. The same evening over 2,000 athletes went to the line just after 7pm in blustery but dry conditions after a day of heavy rain for the 23rd running if the Streets of Galway road race. In a very compeditive race Noel Kelly finished 7th in 25.12 for the 8k distance. On Wednesday 13th conditions were near perfect for the 190 finishers in the annual Castlepollard 5k road race, held in the relatively flat tree lined grounds of Tullynally Castle. Noel Kelly finished 3rd in 15.07 behind Andrew Ledwith and Rory McDonnell with Declan Fahey 8th in 15.43. Liz Cuskelly finished 37th overall in 17.56 to take second place as senior lady. Sean Donegan ran 20.04 for 67th place and 2nd under 16. John Todd took part in some BHAA track races in Ringsend, on 6th August John ran 5.31 for the mile and on 13th August ran 10.41 over 3,000 metres. There was the usual big turnout on Saturday 16th August for the Addidas 10 mile road race in the Phoenix Park with Declan Fahey 12th overall and 2nd over 35 in 54.42 with Liz Cuskelly 66th overall 4th woman and 1st over 35 in 61.02. The annual Longford Marathon and Half Marathon was held on Sunday 24th August. In the Marathon Noel Kelly ran 2.29.32 for 2nd place with Larry Rigney 141st man and 6th over 55 in 4.04.50. In the Half Marathon Declan Fahey finished 3rd in 1.11.58, John Donegan 10th 1.17.28 and 1st over 40. Barry Lambe was 48th man in 1.25.50, John O’Connell 73rd man 1.30.19, Adrian Martin 89th man 1.33.22. In the Womens Half Marathon Liz Cuskelly was 4th in 1.26.43, Mary Daly 17th 1.40.17 (4th over 40), Pauline Lambe 18th 1.40.21, Maire-Triona Keane 19th 1.40.22.

Fixtures :
Sunday 7th September, AAI National Half Marathon, Waterford.

Training : Tuesday and Thursday at 6.30pm, Sunday morning at 8.30am (except on a race day ) all are welcome.

See the club website tullamoreharriers.com