The Castlepollard Road Race on Wednesday 4th August saw nearly 250 athletes complete the 5km course from the Square in Castlepollard out to the beautiful wooded grounds of Tullynally Castle and back again to the Square. Athletes were drawn from the surrounding Counties of Meath, Longford, Offaly and Cavan, from Dublin, Louth and Leitrim, and from as far away as Galway and Donegal, but of course the largest representation was from Westmeath and Mullingar Harriers in particular with 65 athletes from the Club in action, all eager to support this excellent fixture organized by North Westmeath AC. This was the 18th edition of the Race and is now firmly established as one of the main fixtures on the Midland road race calendar.

Before the main 5km road race, there were races around the Square for boys and girls under 7, 9, 11 and 13 years and young athletes from Mullingar Harriers featured well in the prizes, among them Eoin Quinn, Paul McCool, Matthew Glennon, Nicole Gorry, Aoife Darby, Emma Derham, Susan Glennon, Sarah Glennon, Katie Daly, Joseph Cronin, Andrew Daly, Niamh Quinn, Meabh McNulty, Rachel Glennon, Hilary Harris, Ellen Cronin, Adeola Ojomo-Amaka, Katie Daly, Cormac Dalton and Declan Brady. Well done to them all.

Even though it was first time running in the Castlepollard 5km, Jake Byrne was confident to take the lead right from the start and he led the large field out at a very strong pace in ideal running conditions. It wasn’t too long before Jake was seen coming around the last bend towards the finish and still full of running to win in 15:27, nearly 200m clear of Paddy Kelly finishing strongly in 2nd, with Martin Lyons 7th and Vinny Connolly 8th. Next in for Mullingar with a brilliant run to finish in 10th place overall was Tom McGrath (1st in master category) and Ben Vaitkavichius 11th overall (1st in master category). In the corresponding women’s race, Michelle O’Halloran finished 3rd, Paula Murray 5th and Breda Daly 6th.

Also competing for Mullingar was Maurice Looby, Thomas Lynn (1st in category), Matt Glennon (1st in master category), Patrick Muldoon Junior, Liam McGlynn (2nd in master category), Eddie Newman (4th in master category), Jack Reid (2nd in category), Ryan Blundell (3rd in category), Oisin Quinn (4th in category), Mark Carroll, Adam Daly (1st in category), Glen Gaffney (5th in category), Ciara Hewson (1st in category), Kieran Nolan, Gerry Duffy, Stephen Nea (2nd in category), John Bannon (4th in master category), John Shaw, Cormac Dalton, Edel Glennon (3rd in category), Aisling Moody, Christy Creagh (1st in master category), Lorna Moody, Vera McCool (1st in master category), Brigid McCabe, Nicky McCabe, Sean McMullin (2nd in master category), Sean Gaffney, Michael O’Sullivan, Enda Finnerty, Anna Ryan (2nd in category), Faye Walsh, Mary Kennedy, Nuala Moran (4th in master category), Lindsey Brunton, Noeleen Bourke, Caroline Boyle, Martin Buckley, Hannah Buchanan, Teresa Flanagan, Michelle Gaffney, Paul McCool, Edith Carney, Tom Shaw, Breda McDonnell (2nd in master category), Eileen O’Neill, Liz Molloy, Gail Brunton, Marie Martin, Brenda Butterly, Jill Booker, Sonya McManus, Mary Flynn, Caroline Walsh, Lorraine Rickard and PJ Ballesty (1st men’s race walk).

After the race, everyone availed of the excellent refreshments on offer before the prize giving ceremony. In total over twenty five individual prizes were won, making this one of the most fruitful events for Mullingar on the road race circuit.