Mayo AC ladies teams take National gold and silver

Pictured are the Mayo ladies who won senior team gold at the AAI National Half Marathon Championships in Laois at the weekend finished ahead of the Raheny Shamrocks AC (Silver) and Clonliffe Harriers (bronze). 

A group of 13 Mayo AC runners made the long trip to the recent AAI National Half Marathon Championships excellently hosted by St Abbans AC in Crettyard in south Laois. Once again it turned out to be a fantastic day for the Mayo AC men and women who give it their all over a testing hilly two lap course in warm humid conditions.

Pride of place must go to the Senior Women’s team who took the national championship gold ahead  Dublin clubs Raheny Shamrock AC and Clonliffe Harriers AC. Finishing 4th woman overall Catherine Conway [84.06] led her team from the front closely followed by Mary Gleeson  7th overall [85.14] while Collette Tuohy running her first half marathon finished 10th [90.21]. Kathy Connolly once again ran a fantastic race finishing 14th in 91.25 a time that was almost identical to her Ballybofey time last year but this over a much more testing hilly course. Caroline Conway continued her recent fine form finishing strongly in 99.52. All team results are determined by the combined times of the scoring members of each club there was great excitement in the St Abbans sports complex  as the the Mayo AC ladies were declared winners and presented with their national medals by AAI President Mr Liam

 The masters over 40 ladies team performed with equal determination taking silver team medals behind Raheny Shamrock AC and ahead of Tullamore Harriers. Chris Gallagher [98.53] led the team home  followed by Anne Murray [101.55] the third finisher was Anne Fahey Ronayne [107.47] it was a really  brave run by Anne Fahey  who had run a pb in the Longford marathon the previous week and was only called into the Mayo AC team 24 hours before the race due to the unavailability of both Angela O Connor and Breege Blehien McHale who were still recovering from injury.

As well as winning team medals three  age category medals were also won Collette Tuohy won silver +40 Chris Gallagher bronze +40 and Anne Murray  bronze +45.
While the men’s team was missing a number of” names “ those that travelled gave an excellent performance.  Andrew Lynskey [79.29] finished 32nd overall and was actually the first Connaught runner to finish while Laois born Gerry Galvin who now resides in Westport with his family made a successful return to his home county running 88.26.

The men’s over 50 team just finished outside the medals in 4th place, Billy Gallagher [85.15], Owen Mongan [97.44] and Chris O Connell [110.47] gave a great account of themselves, while on the day after the race there was more to celebrate when AAI  re checked their . Owen Mongan who was originally listed as 4th over 55 was promoted to bronze medal position due to an error on their system.
Well done to all on a great days running…

Pictured are the Mayo AC Masters Womens team which took silver medals at the AAI National Half Marathon in laois at the weekend.