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Photos: http://www.athenryac.com/image-galleries/club-5k-championship-2007-newcastle

A great turnout for the 4th annual Athenry AC 5KM Club

Championships out in Newcastle (the other one!) village, Athenry

early last Saturday morning! [The previous three championships

were held on the track in Dangan but since this is still out of

commission, we moved into the country and the scene of this

year's Athenry AC leg of the Galway 5KM series.]

It was Brian O'Connor's turn to organise the event, ably assisted

by such club luminaries as Seb Locteau, local resident Iain Shaw

and Peadar Nugent.

Twenty six athletes lined up, ranging in age from the mid-teens

to the recently work retired, Martin Keane. The latter can now

concentrate completely on improving his "masters" times! Aside:

the club wishes Martin a long and successful retirement and that

he gets lots of use out of his recently-obtained Garmin Foreunner

205.

The weather smiled on the event as well, with mid-Autumn sunshine

but it was a little bit more breezy than would have been

considered optimal running conditions. Those 26 also included a

handful of guests and also road race novices, all of whom were

most welcome.

As to the race itself, the field very quickly split in almost two

even halves - the "runners" and the "joggers." I got stuck in the

middle and had to quickly make up my mind whether to run or jog

around, keeping in mind that I had to go long the day after. I

decided to try to chase down the "runners", something I was

almost totally unsuccessful at doing on this occasion.

Other than the 3KM marker being about 80 metres too far up the

Monivea Road, the course itself was very strongly marshalled,

well marked and was completed without further incident.

Mick Rice skated home in an outstanding 17:13, breaking his PB

for the distance by a handful of seconds. The chap is running

excellently again after a long injury lay-off earlier in the

year. He is looking in very strong shape for a good time at the

DCM again - his 9th in a row since 1999. He was closely followed

home by GCH stalwarts, Danny Carr and Martin McEvilly. It was

familiar ground for Danny as he was born very close to where the

race starts and won the prize for First Guest. Philip Magnier

was first Athenry AC veteran home, in a little under 20:30,

winning the Masters Championship. Philip is also running very

well at the moment and is hoping to go very well in Dublin too.

The real action turned out to be much further down the field and

the scramble to be crowned Club Champion for 2007. After much

deliberation, it was calculated that Martin Keane had broken his

handicap by 2:53, running home in a little over 25:00 for the

distance, closely followed by Pauline Murray and Brid Moran, both

new members of the club. Martin was all smiles receiving the

perpetual cup, keep-always plaque and bottle of sparkling wine.

Pauline and Brid both also received plaques to commemorate their

own success.

Well done to all...

Runner Club Predicted Actual Diff Awards

Mick Rice Athenry 17:27 17:13 -0:14 Fastest Runner

Danny Carr GCH 17:34 17:39 0:05 1st Guest

Martin McEvilly GCH 18:15 18:06 -0:09

Peter Delmer Athenry 18:30 18:16 -0:14

John O' Connor Athenry 18:39 18:30 -0:09

Darragh McShane Athenry 18:23 18:32 0:09

Michael Rooney Athenry 18:30 18:50 0:20

David Huane Mayo 18:45 18:56 0:11

Ann Carter Athenry 19:31 19:12 -0:19

Mark Breen Athenry 19:01 19:19 0:18

Frank Burke Athenry 20:08 20:11 0:03

Oliver Deely None 20:30 20:14 -0:16

James Corbett Athenry 20:20 20:19 -0:01

James Lundon Athenry 20:00 20:20 0:20

Philip Magnier Athenry 20:28 20:36 0:08 Masters Champion

Bríd Moran Athenry 26:00 24:41 -1:19 3rd

Bríd McGaugh Athenry 26:00 24:53 -1:07

Pauline Murray Athenry 26:30 24:54 -1:36 2nd

Grainne Breen Athenry 25:01 25:03 0:02

Martin Keane Athenry 28:00 25:07 -2:53 Club Champion

Aoife Wilson None 29:56 25:09 -4:47

Cathal McLaughlin None 29:00 26:27 -2:33

Fiona McCann Athenry 29:30 28:12 -1:18

Fiona Joyce None 35:00 39:51 4:51

Clara Burke None 34:00 39:51 5:51

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