Loughrea AC

Headford hosted its annual 8km road race saturday last and while the weather was abysmal it did not stop a record field from turning up and racing the highways of this west of Ireland village.The club was represented by Audrey Mc mahon 40.46 and Catherine Kelly 43.29, and one feels that even last years winner Mark Davis would have been sweating to keep pace with Gerry Ryan who coasted home in 24.58, thats sub 5 minute miling for five miles!

Laura Shaughnessy competed in the abovementioned held in Athlone last weekend and competed in both 3000m posting a very impressive 10.07 and 800m which she ran in 2.28.Well done to Laura who is running very well on the track presently.
Elsewhere at the underage Connachts held in Athlone also Melissa Barrett won Gold in the Javelin,and silver in both shot putt and discus.Emmet Creaven was just outside the medals and was placed fourth in both triple and long jump.Both were competing in the U -17 age group.

Loughrea AC's Mary Barrett has been on the move competing in various events and has picked up quite a collection of medals recently.Indeed if you were a reporter following her progress a sat nav would be the order of the day.
In the connacht athletics championships held in Athlone she won 5 gold medals in the senior/masters events which included 80m hurdles,shot putt,high jump,discus and javelin,she set new Irish age group records in the discus (26.24m) and javelin (19.94).

Loughrea had five representatives among the 176 finishers at the inagural Independence day 5km road race held in salthill last Saturday.They were Joseph Clancy (21.29),Noel Murray (22.20), Noel Farrell (25.33),Joanne Murray (27.36), and Marie Deeley (34.41).All five are new members and we would like to congratulate them all.

Here are the results of the Loughrea AC - 5K Burger Time Trial.
For a copy of the results please download the attachment below.

Race No Name Category Predicted Actual Difference Position
663 David Reilly Club 00:18:00 00:18:13 00:00:13 1
668 Joseph Clancy Club 00:21:18 00:20:59 00:00:19 2
650 Barry Beirne Club 00:21:15 00:21:22 00:00:07 3
647 John Kilraine Club 00:24:00 00:21:56 00:02:04 4
649 Ferdy Whelan Club 00:23:00 00:22:18 00:00:42 5
675 Jarlath Fitzgerald Club 00:23:00 00:22:58 00:00:02 6
654 Marie Reilly Club 00:23:45 00:23:37 00:00:08 7

Judith Roache of Loughrea athletic club made the long journey down to mayo to compete in the achill half marathon.Her time of 1 hour and 54 minutes was good enough to win her category.Well done to Judith!

Loughrea Athletic Club are organising a 5k Time Trial on Tuesday 7th of July at 7.30 pm outside the Kilnadeema Community Centre or just across from the Crush Pub

This is fun event and you can walk, jog or runner the 6k Course, Cost of entry is €5 . It is for fully paid up members and Fit4life members of the club. No outside people will be allowed entry into event.

Showers are also available for all in Kilnadeema Community Centre just beside start and finish of race . Followed by Tasty Burger for every finisher Outside the Crush Bar after race

Loughrea AC's Olive Loughnane had an impressive win at the Dublin Grand Prix of racewalking last Sunday.She finished the women's 20km walk in a seasons best of 1h 30m 57s a time which eclipsed Olympic bronze medalist,Elisa Rigado of Italy.
Olive lead the race from start to finish and she can now look foward to the World Championships in Berlin in August with real confidence.Well done to olive and hope the July preparations go well.

Best wishes to Loughrea AC member James Kelly who weds tomorrow July 4th.James and I used to play Gaelic football for loughrea when we were younger so we can inform the bride to be she is in safe hands.
With the happy couple heading to Mexico for a five week honeymoon, we trust james will get plenty of training at altitude.Have a great day tomorrow.

Its hard to credit that 1161 people ran a road race in the west, indeed trawling through the results looking for Loughrea AC club members was like trying to find a needle in a giant haystack(s).
Paul Keane completed the 10km in a credible 37.47 and continued his gradual progression.There is nothing easy in a 10km race and paul's time is very close to 37.13 which is 6 minute miling for that distance.Well done to paul who only joined the club late last year.
Well done also to the race organisers for coping with the large volume of entrants.