The 17th edition of the Castlepollard Road Race on Wednesday 12th August drew athletes from the four provinces of Ireland, a terrific endorsement of the North Westmeath AC organised event, which has firmly established itself as one of the main fixtures in the road race calendar.

Before the main 5km event, we had the customary races around the Square for boys and girls under 9, 11 and 13 years in which over 70 children took part, and young athletes from Mullingar Harriers featured strongly among the many prizes presented on the night. Judging by their performances, there’s little doubt but Mullingar will have some very strong underage teams in the upcoming cross country season.

At 8pm sharp, a very large gathering of 260 runners and walkers took to the line, and were cheered off by a good crowd of locals out to support the race. Among the 260 competitors were over 50 runners and walkers from Mullingar Harriers. As North Westmeath AC is our nearest neighbour Club, it’s only right that Mullingar should support the event in big numbers. Over the years, this race has been very lucky with the weather, and this year was no different with near perfect warm and dry conditions, ideal for the athletes and the spectators.

From the off, Gerry Ryan of Galway City Harriers took up the running and over the 5km opened up a big lead to win in 14:45, over one minute ahead of Gerard Heery (St. Brigid’s AC), who just edged out Derek Croal (Bohermeen AC) and junior Cian O’Reilly (Annalee AC) in a very close finish. Tom McGrath had a brilliant run and finished 6th overall and won his master age-category, with Martin Lyons close behind in 10th to take a prize for 6th senior man and with Ben Vaitkavichius in 12th (and 2nd in master category) the prize for second men’s team was assured.

In the corresponding women’s race, Lorraine Manning (Raheny Shamrocks) got the better of Breffni Twohig (DSD) and Crona Brady (Sportsworld), but with Sinead Roche in 5th and Sarah Mescall in 6th combining with Paula Murray (3rd in master category), the Mullingar trio were delighted to win the women’s team prize.

Not far behind Ben there followed the rest of the very large Mullingar contingent:
Paddy Kelly
Vincent Connolly (3rd junior)
Aidan Gorry
Colm Walsh
Eddie Newman (3rd in master category)
Kieran Nolan
Padraig Moran (1st boy u/15)
JP O’Brien
Robert Yorke (1st boy u/17)
Sinead Roche (5th senior woman)
Sarah Mescall (6th senior woman)
Liam O’Reilly (3rd boy u/15)
Gerry Duffy
Paula Murray (3rd in master category)
Newcomer, Adam O’Keeffe (2nd boy u/17)
Christy Creagh (1st in master category)
Barry O’Brien
Michelle O’Halloran (2nd in master category)
Lorraine Daly (3rd girl u/15)
Brian Boyle
Aine Devaney
Shane Nugent
Nuala Daly
Victoria Harris
Lorna Moody
Anna Ryan
Vera McCool
Michelle O’Sullivan (1st junior woman)
Michael O’Sullivan
Aisling Bannon (2nd junior woman)
Hugh O’Reilly
Emer Fitzpatrick
Des Walsh
Mark Nugent
Pat Nugent
Yvonne Kane
Breda Daly
Paul McCool
Sinead Marshall
Nicky McCabe
Julie Clarke
Siobhan Devaney
Martha Marshall (3rd in master category)
PJ Ballesty (1st men’s race walk)
Caroline Boyle
Breda McDonnell
Ann O’Sullivan
Geraldine Walsh (3rd in master category)

Twenty individual prizes and two team prizes is quite a haul for Mullingar, and to think that there were still some that didn’t compete, as they were saving their energy for the Frank Duffy 10 mile road race in Dublin the following Saturday.