Busy weekend for globetrotting Mayo runners

Athletics: The 'long weekend' of St Patrick's Celebrations was a busy time for Mayo AC athletes.

Over the weekend, a total of 30 members took part in various events at home and abroad. They competed in track and field at Athlone, and on the roads of Skerries, Basel, Liverpool, Malaga, Tubbercurry, Mullingar, Barcelona, as well as on the streets of New York.

Mayo AC’s masters athletes added a huge haul of medals to their 2026 total so far at the National Indoor Championships held at Athlone TUS on Sunday, March 15. It was an action-packed day with competitions running for more than seven hours.

There was an atmosphere of excitement all around the arena, with clubmates and families jointly supporting and applauding some wonderful performances.

Fifteen Mayo AC members competed as individuals on track, in field events, and in two 4x200m relays.

Patrick Moran had a wonderful day, winning gold in three events in one day for the first time in a long career – 60m (a PB), 200m and 400m in his M70 category. Similarly inspirational was Angela O’Connor, one of Mayo AC’s most consistently successful athletes on track, road and cross-country over the last 25 years. She won three W60 gold medals in distance events, 800m, 1500m and 3,000m, as well as helping the women’s 4x200m relay team to silver.

A number of others were also multi-medal winners. They included two M75 masters returning to compete successfully after layoffs – Martin Peyton in long jump and shot put and Paraic Sweeney, who was competing on the track in his first masters Indoors.

Kilmeena-based Brendan Staunton retained the M40 shot put title with a throw of 12:33 Paddy Kearney improved his recent 60m time to 10:14, though he just missed out on a medal when finishing fourth in the M70 grade.

Mayo AC had two teams competing and winning medals in both the mixed relay and women’s 4x200m.

Elsewhere, also on Sunday, March 15, Mayo AC’s Tadgh Hanrahan finished the Barcelona Marathon in 2:57.46, Michelle McAlpine completed the Skerries 10k in 49:55 and her sister Carol clocked 53.30.

That same day, New York Road Runners (NYRR) hosted more than 30,000 runners for the 2026 United Airlines NYC half-marathon. Among the participants was Mayo AC’s Breege Blehein who finished in 1:50.27.

Competing over the same distance but in Liverpool was Castlebar-based Katie Gibbons. She completed her first half-marathon in 1:33.51.

In Basel, Switzerland, Ballina-native David Naylor had a brilliant run in the 10k finishing in second place in 33:02 – an excellent personal best time and also the fastest 10k by a Mayo AC runner for many a year!

Another man who ran a personal best was Michael Rocke at the Malaga half-marathon. He finished in 1:19.04 while his Mayo AC clubmate, Turlough-based Paul Kelly, crossed the finish line in 1:55.28 On St Patrick’s Day, Trevor Dempsey followed up his recent Kinvara 3/4 marathon run (1:58.66) with an excellent finish in the Mullingar half-marathon of 1:17.28, averaging 3:40ks. Trevor placed 19th overall and fifth M40, with Thomas Jennings coming home in 2:04.48.

Meanwhile, Mayo AC also had ten runners in the field for the St Patrick's Day 10k in Tubbercurry. They were led home by Lorcan Murray who finished in fifth place in 36:31. Colette Tuohy was a well-deserved winner of over-50 women's category in 43:23. Also competing were: David Browne 41:36, Micky Fox 41:49, Johnny Cribbin 43:06, Ray Clarke 42:20, Lucy Tuohy 46:34, David Dinsmore 48:59, George Bell 1:03.04.

Art Maguire ran the 5k race in 18:33.