Armagh International Road Races 2020

The Armagh International Road Races were held earlier this evening, Thursday 13th Feb. In the Women's 3k race Ashling Egan finished 3rd in the 0/45 Category in a fine time of 11.14. In the Men's 3k Dominic Horan had a fine run finishing 2nd in 0/50 category in a time of 9.50. Well done also to our good friend Ian Egan who ran 9.47 to win the 0/50 Category in the 3k men's race. Well done to all.

National Underage/ Masters and Intermediate C/C C/ships

Well done to all our athletes and our fellow Sli Cualann and County athletes who took part in the National Underage/ Masters and Intermediate C/C C/ships, which were held in Avondale on Saturday 8th February. Congratulations to the organising committee and all the volunteers who helped to put on an excellent event. Congratulations to Orla Phillips, who had an excellent run, finishing 2nd in 0/65 category. (Results on AAI website show Orla in wrong category). Ashling Smith added to her evergrowing collection of medals, finishing 3rd in 0/45 category, with Suzanne Foot hot on her heels, finishing 4th in the same category. Our Masters men, Paul O'Brien, Paul Allen, Conor Maher, Bernard Quinn and Richard Kavanagh, all had fine runs. The competition for places in ALL categories was fierce, the first 3 in the 0/65 men were the 2019 0/65 European 5000mtrs champion, 2019 0/65 European 800 and 1500 mtrs champion and 0/65 Irish 10k record holder. We also had a number of juveniles take part, all of whom performed brilliantly. Well done to Elanor, Ella, Eile, Adam, Samuel, Dara and Bobby.

Trim 10 mile 2020

Well done to all our athletes and our fellow Sli Cualann athletes who took part in the Trim 10mile on 02.02.2020. Darren Cullen ran a fine time of 57.07 and finished 23rd overall. Paul O'Brien ran a new Pb of 57.34 and was 27th O/a. Neil Felton ran 70.38, knocking over 6minutes off his previous best for the distance. Michael Knight continued his preparations for Paris marathon with an excellent 70.38, and 2nd 0/60. Fantastic run also from Sarah Baryga, 62.34, and 5th overall

DCM 2019

We had a really tremendous day of racing on Sunday with a possibly unprecedented amount of pbs. We had hoped to be able to post official results, including teams, of the National Championships by now however these are currently unavailable. The following are the provisional results we have to hand, many congratulations to our medal winners. The standard was extremely high this year. Thanks to Richard for compiling.

Ian McGrath 2.37.31 6th 4th
Paul O'Brien 2.43.59/Pb (-4m)
Niall Larkin 2.54.44
Sarah Baryga 2.55.19/Pb (-3m)6th 3rd
Paul Allen 2.55.59/ Pb (-10m)
Gordon McWilliams 2.57.30 (adult pb)
Gary (the clown) Condon 3.01.37
Helen Barry 3.09.48 9th. 6th
Michael Knight 3.20.54/ob 3rd 1st
Richard Kavanagh 3.22.19 4th 2nd
Karol O'loinsigh 3.23.14/Pb (-25min)
Paul O'Dwyer 3.30.40/Pb
Jean O'Kennedy 3.31.13/Pb (-6m)2nd 1st
Lee Borland 3.37.43/ Pb (-23m)
Mary Hayde 3.40.32/ Pb (-23m)
Sharon Bailey. 3.46.43/Pb (-10m)
Siobhan Butler 3.48.34 Pb (-6m)
Norbert Van Woerkom 3.58.37/pb (-4m)
John Ashworth 4.04.24/ Pb
Marie Curran 4.16.40
Maureen O'Rourke 4.17.50/Pb (-1m)
Mark Duncan. 4.25.01/Pb (-1m)
Peter Doran 4.40.52
Dolores Gilliland 4.50.32/1st Pb
Elaine Norton 4.53.09/1st Pb
Marie Blennerhasset 4.58.46
Paul Gannon 5.19.03

Joe Cawley and Mark Messitt were both pacing, our pacers do an invaluable job and sacrifice their own race to support other runners' dreams and goals. Thank you!

Thanks also to the team on hand on Sunday morning to rub out and loosen muscles including our good friend Ian Egan.

We couldn't do any of this without the coaching and mentoring behind the athletes. Thanks to Level 3 coach Gerry Curtis for providing the tried and rested training plans.
Thanks to Richard for implementing them on the ground with his always wise words of wisdom in rain and shine all year round. We'd be lost without you.
Thanks also to the other leg of the coaching triad, Bobby Mitchell whose in-depth knowledge and technical expertise gets the very best out of his athletes.

As almost all coaches like to see their athletes run negative splits, here are ours who managed to do so. These splits are based on gun times; (they are also negative for chip as well):

Siobhan Butler 2m.29s. Negative Split
Richard Kavanagh. 2m. 27s.
Ian McGrath. 37s
Gordon McWilliams. 31s

Great runs also from our good friends, Conor Boyle, who ran 3.29.35 and Grainne Butler who ran 3.50.49.

In the Frankfurt Marathon, Cathy Mitchell ran an excellent new Pb of 3.26.11:
3 marathons in 12 months and 3 pbs, the latest with a 9th place age category finish, over 50 and no slowing this one down!

Congratulations to all our Sli Cualann athletes, recover well and enjoy the post-marathon buzz.