Weekend winners Sarah at Headford 8k, Mary at Achill Half

Headford 8k women’s winner Sarah Syron at Balla 2012

Sarah Syron was the winner of a close fought women’s race at the Headford 8k in a personal best time of 31:12.  Sarah  is having a brilliant season and smashing her pbs over various distances. This form is the result of a lot of hard work and dedication. Well done Sarah, it’s great to see you get the success you deserve. Sarah held off Regina Casey by 8 seconds with Jane Ann Healy a further 5 seconds in third. John Byrne has still got that turn of speed he displayed over many years at these ‘shorter’ distances before he went into the ultra zone. He finished second in the men’s race. There was a good turnout from our club and known finishers are listed.

Sat 6 July: Headford 8k (262 finishers) results are here Headford8km_2013

(Mayo AC unless stated)  Men 1 Andrew Annett (Mourne Runners) 25:58, 2 John Byrne 26:08, 3 Julio Cesar Castro (Kilmurry Ibrickane-North Clare) 26:41 , 5 Timmie Glavey 26:58, 8 Henry Hughes (‘Higgins’ in results) 28:37, 9 Anto Devaney 28:46;  other Mayo AC  incl Patrick Walsh 32:55, Ambrose Gaughan 32:56, Owen Mongan 36:20

Women: 1 Sarah Syron 31:12 PB, 2 Regina Casey (GCH) 31: 20 3 Jane A Healy 31:25, other Mayo AC Joan Walsh 36:37, Laura Heneghan 37:26, Ann McDonnell 38:56

There was more success in Achill on Saturday as our leading lady Mary Gleeson won the women’s race in the Half Marathon in 1:24:41.  No doubt a good test ahead of the National Half  on Aug 5th. Well done, Mary. The men’s race winner was Freddy Sittuk in a course record 69:40. Jim Donnelly the Meet & Train man from Ballyhaunis ran 2:03:14. Some names from 5k Series: Bernadette Burke ran her first Half in 2 :17:21, and Afrian Dervin finished in 2:16:56. Mighty stuff.  The 10k  results published as provisional on the race website are reported to contain a catalogue of errors. Regarding official results The website currently states “due to sheer volume of late registrations and the resultant change to the start time, the file was not ready to be sent in sufficient time to meet the print deadline.” Like many we await clarification. See two helpful comments from Sean Murphy and Paddy O’Toole which throw some light on the issue.