Mayo AC women bring home 3 Team Silver, and individual Gold and Silver from National 10k

(Picture above are Angela O’Connor who won gold individual in the o45 category
and Colette Tuohy who took silver in the over 40)

It has been a tense wait all week. Following a tough race in hot and
humid conditions at the Phoenix Park, AAI finally confirmed the
results of the National 10k championships on Thursday evening. For
Mayo AC women it was well worth the wait. They won silver team medals
in Senior, over 40 and over 50 categories. It has been some time since
any club in the country matched that feat, certainly not this year
when they were the only club to achieve this unique and well deserved
distinction. Across the board the performance of the Mayo AC women
emphasised the current strength of the club, and maintained the club’s
great tradition of success at national level.

In addition, Angela O’Connor won gold individual in the o45 category
and Colette Tuohy silver over 40.  These were superb performances.
Both of these Castlebar based women have been in brilliant form in
2011 and ran excellent races in the mud at ALSAA during the Masters XC
in February. Angela has battled injury in the past few years but has
shown great resilience, Colette has only returned to athletics in the
past couple of years and her success in a very competitive section is
due to hard work and talent.
The Senior team were brilliantly led by Catherine Conway (8th) closely
followed by Mary Gleeson (11th) and Colette Tuohy (20th) and were well
backed up a fast improving Sarah Syron and Paula Prendergast. There
were 21 senior clubs competing in this section.
Angela O’Connor spearheaded the o40s team. There was a gutsy
performance by Chris Gallagher, backed up by the experienced Ann
Murray who was 4th individual in the 045 category.Ten teams competed
in the o40 section.
Mary Naylor who finished 4th individual o50, has won many a medal in
her long career, and now in her new category led home Una McGrath and
Mary Murphy to their first national medals. Their success will be an
inspiration to all Fit4Life participants.

Mayo AC Women teams (combined times, 3 to count)
Senior: Catherine Conway, Mary Gleeson, Colette Tuohy: 1:54:41:
Over 40: Angela O’Connor, Chris Gallagher, Ann Murray:  2:11:13
Over 50: Mary Naylor,  Una McGrath, Mary Murphy: 2:41:10

There were 461 athletes in the men’s race and intense competition
among the 28 participating Senior men’s clubs. Mayo AC’s 11th place
was a credit to the team led by TJ McHugh (finished 29th overall).
Timmy Glavey, Antony Devaney  Kevin Mellett: combined time (4 to
count)  2:21:02

Men over 50 team finished 7th: Ronnie Naylor 19th o50, Tom Hunt 5th
o60, Owen Mongan 5th o55. Combined time, 3 to count) : 2:06:06.