After spending a month in Australia, followed by ten days in Spain, it was back to the business of winning national titles for Robert Heffernan this morning The Togher man was competing in the Woodie’s DIY national 30k walking championships, held over the Monahan Road / Centre Park Road circuit in Cork. Older runners will remember competing in the national road relays over this circuit back in the 70’s.
It was down to business from the start for Heffernan. On a bitterly cold morning he immediately went into the lead, with Colin Griffin from Ballinamore AC attempting to go with him. However, Heffernan was in determined form and was quickly away on his own, discarding his woolly hat on the second 2.5k lap. After that there was never any danger of being caught and he easily won the title, breaking his own national record with a time of 2 hours 7 minutes and 48 seconds.
Afterwards he stated that his training is going great and the race was no more than a good training session. His mileage has remained under 80 miles a week, preferring to do more quality work than quantity.
Laura Reynolds (Mohill AC) won the women’s 20k walk in 1:38:08, while Kate Veale (West Waterford AC) won the 7.5k race.
Details;
Men 30k; 1. Robert Heffernan (Togher AC) 2:07:48; 2. Colin Griffin (Ballinamore AC) 2:13:59; 3. Jeff Cassin (Finn Valley AC) 2:21:17.
Women 20k; 1. Laura Reynolds (Mohill AC) 1:38:08
7.5k
Kate Veale (West Waterford AC) 35:36
Fiona Dennehy (St. Senan’s AC)44:16
Paul Murphy (Claremorris AC) 44:34
15k
Cian McManamon (Westport AC) 1:14:48
10k
Michael Moran (Claremorris AC) 49:47
Emma Doherty (North Belfast Harriers) 53:32
Robert O’Neill (Togher AC)
5k
Caoimhe Casey 28:36
Dylan Carty 28:41
Simon Gilespie (Balina AC) 29:03
Stephanie Morley (Claremorris AC) 31:22
Laura Bestie 31:43
2.5k
Andrew Bell 15:18
Siobhan Hennessy (Moycarky Coocroo AC) 15:40
Clodagh Morley 15:48
Saoirse Oliver 21:15
