Dermody delivers cracking performance in Charleville

Attention has firmly turned towards cross-country and the longer road races as the curtain comes down on the track and field season.

Last weekend’s Diamond League Final in Brussels marked the final track meet of the season, a long campaign that started with the indoors in January. For many the year wrapped up in August, but many global superstars continued their season right into September.

Closer to home, the National Half Marathon was held in Charleville last weekend where athletes from Gowran, Kilkenny City Harriers (KCH) and Castlecomer took part. The first female home from the county was Lauren Dermody (Castlecomer), while seven athletes from Gowran took part, along with two from KCH.

National Half Marathon

The National Half Marathon was held last weekend in Charleville in conjunction with the Charleville International Half. Two thousand participants took part in the event, which was one of the best organised road races in the country. From start to finish the event ran smoothly from the collection of numbers to the race itself, the finish and the prizegiving. The looped course started in Charleville before heading out on a loop to Kilmallock and back again, taking in some scenic spots on the Cork/Limerick border.

Lauren Dermody (Castlecomer) competed in her first ever half-marathon. She gave a great performance, finishing ninth in the women’s race in a time of 1.20.30. Starting conservatively, she clocked 19.06 for 5km and 37.44 for 10km. By the 16th kilometre she had already started to gain ground on some of the other women - in fact, in her last 4km Dermody moved past five runners and clawed back over two minutes on the athletes finishing fifth to eighth. The race demonstrated that she has the potential to improve upon this time in future events as she gains confidence over the longer distance.

Gowran AC had seven athletes take part. First home for the men was John Coady who finished 123rd in 1.19.23. Cody was just half a minute ahead of Marty Moseley.

The team of Coady, Moseley and Paddy O’Keeffe finished 26th out of a staggering 62 men’s teams, one of the highest number of men’s teams ever to compete in a national half marathon. The men’s team finished 17th in the over-35 category.

Kate O’Brien led the Gowran girls home with a time of 1.29.23. The team of Kate O’Brien, Kathryn Kennedy and Orla Clear were 13th overall. Thirty-three women’s teams competed in the event. The women’s team finished eighth in the over-35 category. This was excellent preparation for the Gowran athletes ahead of their planned national marathon race in Dublin at the end of October.

The overall race was won by Hugh Armstrong (Ballina) in 1.04.35 while Shauna Heaslip (An Riocht) took the women’s title in 1.10.57. Leevale took the men’s team title with Dundrum South Dublin taking the women’s spoils.

Fixtures

The cross-country season has started, and the Kilkenny County Championships is only two weeks away. Athletes are reminded that they must be registered members of an athletics club to take part in the county championships and they must run in a recognised club singlet. The fixtures for the coming season are:

September 29: County even age juveniles, masters over-50 and intermediate, Ballycurran, 11am.
October 6 : County uneven age juveniles and novice A, Castlecomer 11am.
October 11: Masters over-40 and junior, Rosbercon 8pm.