Rising star Louis O’Shea of Drogheda & District AC took a fantastic win in his 400m heat at the National Indoor Combined Events’ Championships held in Abbotstown on Saturday.
Louis, who is relatively new to athletics, put in some terrific training and is clearly one to watch in 2025. The 18 year old junior athlete lined up with brothers Andrew and Jordan Kelly.
Andrew surged forward to take the lead and held his own in the first 200m lap. But Louis – who stayed focused – executed his race plan to perfection to taking the lead in the 2nd 200m lap, and thrilled the crowd with a burst of speed to take the heat in 52.19 sec.
Andrew had looked strong for most of the race, and also finished to the delight of the crowd in a lightning fast 53.16. Jordan gave every ounce of energy and despite injury crossed the finishing line just a fraction of a second later in 53.36, while Jimmy English in heat 5 had to terrific run (57.49) to round off a great day.
Meanwhile the footprint of Drogheda & District AC continues to grow as two of the club’s most talented long distance road runners, fabulous training partners Carmel Keenan and Barbara Lowth Byrne as capped off an awesome trip to the Emirate to visit Barbara’s family by completing the classic distance at the Dubai Marathon. Carmel completed the race in 03:45:51 and Barbara finished in 04:10:04 and Barbara’s son Robert also took part in the race.
Carmel Keenan and Barbara Lowth Byrne.
Nuala Reilly celebrated her 100th Parkrun in Oldbridge on Saturday and also went on to take 1st category prize at the R-ACE 5K at St Feckins GAA grounds in Termonfeckin the following morning. Margaret Carroll took second in the category.
John Breen was first man home for the club in 17:26 and was much pleased with how the race went. Two new stars showed fabulous ability at the ACE 5K at St Feckins GAA grounds in Termonfeckin on Sunday morning.
John Breen and Aidan Prone.
Although new to the club Joe Hammel is no stranger to long distance running and he found the conditions much to his liking – finishing the 5k in 18:33 with Aedin Prone running a sensational race to finish 3 seconds behind in 18:36. We look forward to seeing both in red again soon, and hoping training works well for them.
John Perkins again had a really solid run again completing the race in 19:30. Joe Carroll was happy with this as a race sharpener and he wasn’t far off his pb in 22:48.
And on a whirlwind weekend of running, Stephen Kelly won the Bank of Ireland BHAA 6K race in Tymon Park (21:34), Dublin 24, while Paddy Murphy was second in his category completing the race in 25:13.
