Martina Passman assumed the mantle of Athenry AC overall champion for 2010, coming out on top over the 5km course in Newcastle near Athenry on Saturday last. Crossing the line as fresh as a daisy she reportedly ran strongly throughout the 5km and then made the best of the gentle down-grade towards Newcastle pitch to clinch the silverware. Martina has entertained us all with her fantastic running reports in recent times but on this occasion she did her talking on the road giving a fine display of road running which ultimately earned her the club championship trophy. Our congratulations gob to Martina on her wonderful achievement. All those miles in the Burren have evidently paid off.

Close behind Martina was Chris Giles, who had the difficult task of leading the field out on handicap. As it's always more difficult to run a race from the front with a closing pack behind, Chris ran with admirable determination and skill to maintain second place at the line. No doubt there'll be more from Chris before too long. Well done on a fine run!

In the bronze medal berth was Miriam Farrell who made it a female clean sweep in the main category on the day, finishing less than 30 seconds off second place. On a tough day for distance running, maintaining focus as the field came together in the final stages was no easy feat and Miriam can be immensely proud of such a strong performance.

Leading masters runner on the day was Liam Egan. Liam has been training particularly well recently with Athenry's Fit4Life group and reaped the rewards of his dedication and improved fitness to finish ahead of such eminent challengers as James Lundon, Martin Keane, Philip Magnier and Maria Hehir. Liam kept his nerve in the closing stages, finishing well to the fore in 6th place overall to claim the masters title.

Fastest athlete on the day was Darragh McShane who posted a super-speedy 17:56 in tough conditions - a real quality run. It was great to see some of the clubs best runners like Darragh, Ray Somers and Lyall Guiney out to support the event. Their presence added immensely to what was a throughly enjoyable morning's running.

Congratulations to all of our newly minted 2010 Club Champions and above all to Martina Passman who was top of the heap in 2010.

Club Secretary Iain Shaw was on hand to take photographs and a fine collection of 'snaps' have now been loaded into this web-site's gallery. As is usual with Iain, they're of the highest quality.

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Happy Faces At The Club Champs

Liam - Master's Champ:Liam - Master's Champ

Result