Despite a few absences (due to injuries and a new baby boy for Owen Curran), Athenry AC competed with both a senior and a veteran's men team in the AAI national championships at 10k on the road on Sunday, April 22nd April.

Peter Delmer swopped up to the veteran's team to join Gary Doherty and Philip Magnier and supply the minimum three necessary. While Paul McNamara, James Corbett, Johnnie O'Connor, and Alan Burke made up the senior team.

It was a very muggy day in Navan and probably this lead to the so-so times recorded by the many athletes competing: the winning time in this national championship, for example, was slower than the most recent Fields of Athenry race.

Paul had won this race for the previous two years but his training has been lighter than normal and he came in 9th. It was hard to find anything but cheery disappointment from the next set of Athenry athletes: Peter clocked 39 something, a couple of minutes slower than normal, and Gary, Johnnie, and Alan followed within the next minute and a half. However, Philip and James were happy enough to have competed and set a benchmark for their next 10k races over the summer; both recorded in the mid 40s.

One success story of our travelling group was our fellow Galway athlete, Andy Talbot. Andy competed as an over-55 veteran and managed a 4th place with a fine time of 38:04, thereby kicking the ass of many a younger runner.

Individual results: http://www.athleticsireland.ie/content/wp-content/uploads/2007/04/Full%20individual%20Result.htm

Senior team result: http://www.athleticsireland.ie/content/wp-content/uploads/2007/04/SENIOR%20MEN%20INTER%20CLUB%20RESULT.htm

Master (Veteran) team result: http://www.athleticsireland.ie/content/wp-content/uploads/2007/04/MASTER%20MEN%20TEAM%20RESULT.htm