It’s been a while since Mullingar and Westmeath fielded Novice teams in the Leinster Novice and Master Road Race Championships, but confidence was high among the Mullingar contingent leading into the event on Monday 4th May in Gowran, Co. Kilkenny and by day’s end that confidence was proved well founded, judging by the terrific results, and our senior athletes showed that it's not just the underage athletes in the Club have all the success.

The day really got off to the best start when in the combined 3,000m for Novice and Master Women, Mary Scully found top form and was only very narrowly beaten into second place overall, finishing in 10:53, a mere 2 seconds behind the overall race winner, but this was more than enough to take gold for first Novice woman and she led the Club and County team of Alwyn Kinane, Eva Ross and Patricia Broderick to win the Club and County Novice Women team titles, to the delight of the Mullingar supporters.

In the 6,000m race for Novice Men, first home for Mullingar was Maurice Looby in an excellent 12th place, followed closely by Matt Glennon and Aidan Gorry in 14th and 15th with Justin Murtagh in 17th providing the vital 4th score to ensure the team finished Second Club. Having terrific races and packing close behind, were Colm Walsh and Darragh Thornton making up the Westmeath team, which finished Second County. This was a terrific spirited team effort by all.

In the final race, the 6,000m for Master Men, Ben Vaitkavichius was 4th overall in 20:19 and won his age category with a comfortable 5 seconds to spare over his nearest rival, reinforcing his formidable reputation as a master athlete.

By day’s end, it was medals all around for the Mullingar athletes, just rewards for all the hard work put in at training of late but the determined spirit of the members of each team was what will stick in the memory for them all. If Mullingar and Westmeath were missing for a few years, what a come-back this proved!