Heat on the street at Mayo AC series
Mayo AC finishers at the recent Colm Horkan Memorial half-marathon were, from left: Gillian Hanrahan, Dee Prendergast, Martin Parsons, Mairéad Bristow and Helen Ingoldsby.
Athletics: Race 3 of the 2026 Shaw Commercials Mayo AC 5k Series was in Claremorris last Tuesday evening.
Hydration was key as temperatures at race start were very warm and dry (26°C) with a light northerly breeze.
Following some great finishing times in the first two races, the one lap Claremorris course with that long climb up Claremount Manor after the 3k mark is recognised as one of the most challenging in the series. Having completed that energy sapping section, runners entered the track and completed a 400m circuit to the finish line.
The top three finishers were: 1, Shane Heneghan (Dublin Front Runners) 17:12; 2, Darragh Healy (Mayo AC) 17:31; 3, Michael Rocke (Mayo AC) 17:39. Rocke was also third in 2025 but ran 12 seconds quicker this time.
The first three women were: 1, Michelle Heneghan (Mayo AC) 19:47; 2, Sue-Ellen Griffith (Claremorris AC) 20:15; 3, Eimear Fitzmaurice (Mayo AC) 20:54.
Mayo AC were also well represented by Tadgh Hanrahan 18:27, Stephen Timlin 18:33, Art Maguire 18:56, Micky Fox 20:17, Tom Forde 20:18, Anto Devaney 20:21 and Darren Flanagan 20:22, while narrowly outside the places in the women’s race were their clubmates Katie Gibbons (21:00) and F60 competitor Angela O’Connor just a few seconds behind, in what was a great run by one of Mayo AC's top masters athletes.
The excellent turnout of 225 runners completing the race was up 20 on the year previous and the series is meeting its objective of attracting lots of non-club runners – they’ve made up about two-thirds of the fields in the Series so far. The events are offering opportunities to runners at all levels to measure their performances over five weekly races at different locations.
As in the previous two races there was a good range of local clubs in the Claremorris field, with Mayo AC and Westport AC most prominent again with over 70 members in the field.
The fourth series race is next Tuesday evening in Ballinrobe. Registration is at the soccer club until 7:30pm, with the race due to start at 8pm.
