Co Cavan Road Race Championships.
The 2013 Co Cavan Road Race Individual Men’s title was won by Annalee AC ‘s Cian O’Reilly who looked comfortable throughout the 10k race and came in ahead of Bailieboro AC’s Martin Fulton and Shercock AC’s James Treanor. A group of 10 athletes had broken off the large initial group of competitors after the first 2k and this group further reduced in size to just 3 athletes after 6k. But Cian showed good speed endurance in the finishing 4 kilometres when he took off for home and finished a clear winner. Marathon runner Peter Walsh was the next Annalee athlete home in 4th place with Fionan O’Reilly in 5th and Donal McGoldrick running a personal best to finish in 6th place. The men’s team was completed by Val Gough who finished in 17th place and the men’s team placed first to win the overall team title.
The V1 men’s 5k race was also of a very high standard. John Donohoe was first of the Annalee athletes home and placed 7th, while Martin Tackney and Eamon Brady were close behind in 10th and 11th. Two further members of the men’s V1 team-Fergal McManus and Ciaran Kellegher finished in 14th and 15th place. The V1 Mens team finished in 3rd place. Sean O’Reilly was the best of the V3 Annalee runners in 6th place while Peadar McKiernan was 14th. The other team members of Colm McBreen and Aiden Watters finished further down the field in 18th and 19th. Unfortunately, the V3 Men were just out of the medal positions when they ended up 4th.
The Ladies’ races were also very competitive with large numbers competing. Eadaoin O’Reilly was involved in a sprint to the finish from about 150 meters out but was just beaten on the line for second place and had to be content with the bronze medal. The remaining Senior Ladies were Lara Doughty and Isabella Donnelly who place 12th and 13th respectively just missing the bronze team medal by one point.
Fiona Connolly ran very strongly to finish in 3rd place in the V1 Ladies 3k race and Eileen Murphy finished 8th in a good individual performance. Tara McNamara and Eithne McManus placed 11th and 12th and the team ended up in 3rd place. The V3 Ladies took 3 of the top 4 finishing positions to easily take team gold. The V3 Ladies winner was Lyla Dolan who had yet another fantastic race and had been up with the 3 senior medal winners for the full race. Brenda Wilson was a strong second while Evelyn O’Reilly and Eilish Smith finished in 4th and 6th respectively.