Seamie Gilhooley of Athenry AC delivered a fine front-running performance in last Saturday's 3rd Annual Headford 8K Road Race to be first past the finish line. Seamus was first home in a very impressive finishing time of 27:15. Seamie's performance was all the more noteworthy given that the course was quite challenging and the running conditions were wet and slippy underfoot. He was accompanied for most of the trip by Craughwell AC's Mark Davies (27:20) who was the first senior man as Seamus had entered as a junior. Mark is also going through a rich vein of running form at the moment, although a slight achilles problem on the night may well have impeded his running somewhat. All that being said, however, as the post drew near, young Gilhooley delivered a devastating burst of speed to draw clear and in the end was five seconds ahead of his Craughwell challenger. Conor Moloney (27:25) carried the GCH flag in third place.

In the women's race a junior was also first past the post with Nicola O'Ceallaigh (32:51) of GCH ahead of Caroline Clancy (33:00) from Loughrea AC and Michelle Lynch (33:11) of GCH.

Our warmest congratulations go to Seamus on this fine performance. We're all sure this represents just the very beginning of what's to come from such a precocious athletic talent. Seamus has improved in leaps and bounds this year and who knows what might be in store for this super athlete.

Congratulations Seamie!

Full results from the race are attached here and are also available at www.headford.org where a fine collection of photos from the race are also available, one of which we've pinched for this article.

Our sincere thanks also to the crew in Headford, including our very own Gary Doherty, who put this race together. It was a superbly well run event which was enjoyed and praised uniformly by all we spoke to.

Thank you and hopefully we'll see you again next year.