Offaly athletes celebrated at juvenile awards night

Congratulations to Alisha Maher who was recently presented with the Athletics Ireland Juvenile Star Award for Offaly.

The Juvenile All Star Awards are held each year to celebrate Ireland’s best and most successful juvenile athletes from counties north and south, east and west. The annual awards ceremony is a celebration of the ‘next generation of stars’ and their many successes throughout the 2024 season. The award winners were selected by the Juvenile Committee of Athletics Ireland and this year was held at the Mullingar Park Hotel on April 12th. Supporting Alisha at her prestigious award was her parents Beatrice and Eamonn, sister Ella and her training partner Katie Deverell. Alisha's commitment to the sport saw her flourish in 2023 and 2024 while balancing her Irish dancing at the Callanan MacCloone O’Meara Irish Dance Academy practicing twice a week.

Alish Maher and her training partner and good friend, Katie Deverell at the Athletics Ireland Juvenile Star Awards.

In her 2024 season she improved her times in all of her three sprinting events of 60m, 100m and 200m and achieved national bronze in the indoor 60m and national silver in the outdoor 100m. She also was part of the U18 relay team who were crowned national champions in the indoor and outdoor championships in 2024. Alisha just recently got her 2025 season off to a superb start in the U19 indoor all Ireland championships claiming gold in the 200m and silver in the 60m while improving her times to 24.82 seconds and 7.64 seconds

Alisha would like to thank her dedicated coaches, Ciaran Farrelly and Ray Delaney and her family and friends who's tremendous support has aided her achieving all she has to date. She also thanks the Tullamore Harriers Athletics Club for all the support, encouragement and facilities that it continues to provide for all athletes.

Congratulations to Alisha on a well-deserved award and we wish you all the best for the 2025 season.

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Huge congratulations to Emily Grennan, who claimed the women’s title at the Clara AC- hosted Paddy Dolan 5K on Sunday the 13^th of April. It was fantastic to see Emily back racing—and even better to see her take the first-lady honours. 

She clocked a strong 18:23 to take the win, with Ferbane’s Denise Egan finishing second in18:47 and Grace O’Reilly placing third in 18:52.

A big well done to Clara AC for hosting a superbly organised event, which marked the third race in the Healthy Offaly Athletics 5K Series.

In the men’s race, Peter Somba claimed overall victory in 15:34, followed closely by our own Kevin Minnock in second place (15:47), and Dan Morris of Mullingar Harriers finishing third (15:52).

The club had a great turnout, with 36 athletes taking part. We also had a showing in the age group categories:

Jonathan Dunne – 1st Over 40

Sarah Flanagan – 1st Over 45

Mary Daly – 1st Over 60

Well done to everyone who represented the blue and white—great performances all around!

Tullamore Harriers Results:

Kevin Minnock 0:15:47

Jonathan Dunne 0:16:41

Barry Mooney 0:16:49

Emily Grennan 0:18:23

Daniel Molloy 0:18:22

Darren Butler 0:18:31

Sarah Flanagan 0:18:51

Alan Heffernan 0:19:11

Brendan Abbott 0:19:23

Brendan Kelly 0:19:26

David Hollywood 0:20:05

Justin Murtagh 0:20:58

Charlotte Abbott 0:21:27

Francis Mollen 0:22:00

Forrest McCormack 0:22:39

Helena Buckley 0:22:46

Anne Marie McNamara 0:23:02

Mary Daly 0:23:17

Dave Dunican 0:23:16

John O Connell 0:23:18

Finian McDermott 0:23:16

Simon Byrne 0:23:29

Aine Golden 0:23:36

Mary Galvin 0:23:43

Naomi Galvin 0:24:06

Emer Rigney 0:24:27

Sara McLaughlin 0:25:13

Paschal Naughton 0:25:18

Helene Rouget 0:25:46

Sharon Daly 0:26:15

Michael Kinsella 0:26:43

Elma Ravenhill. 0:29:42

Jim Langan 0:35:56

Melissa Hogan 0:49:06

University Track and Field Championships 

The outdoor track and field season kicked off on Friday and Saturday, 11th and 12th of April, with the Irish University Track and Field Championships at Morton Stadium, Santry. Michael Murphy (DCU) delivered a great performance in the 5,000m, running a massive personal best of 14:18.04 to finish fourth.

Murphy, along with his namesake Niall Murphy (UL), decided to share the pace as there were a couple of notable fast finishers in the race. Michael Murphy was always in first or second place up to 500m to go.

In the closing stages, Niall Murphy surged ahead to win in 14:08.86, breaking Paul Lawther’s long-standing record from 1978. Kevin McGrath and Oisín Murray followed closely behind, both clocking 14:10 for second and third place, respectively.

It was a superb season opener for Michael Murphy, who shaved over 14 seconds off his previous personal best and, in doing so, broke Mark Christie’s 2006 DCU record by 1.6 seconds.

Evelyn Coughlan (TCD) won a super bronze medal in the 5000m in 17:01.15

The race was won by Emma McEvoy (UCD) 16:35.52 and 2nd place was Faye Dervan (DCU) in 16:57.09

Shauna Leydon (UG) competed in the 400m Hurdles taking 4th place in the semi-final in 1:06.43. Unfortunately, Shauna didn't finish the final, but she did take over 3 seconds off the club record, which was set by Chloe Harte in 2017.

Ruby Stuven (ATU) clocked 2:21.56 in 800m (8th).

Emmanuel Ilori (OYD) 3rd in his heat in the 100m Sprint (11.37) but didn't line out for the final.

In the 200m sprint, Billy Corrigan (TUS) was 2nd in his heat (22.52) to progress to the semi-finals where he was 3rd finisher and unfortunately not good enough to progress to the final.

Well done to all. 

Aaron shows strong early season form in Malta

Aaron Keane raced in Malta on Saturday 12th of April, at the Malta Challenge Series where he showed great early season form in winning the Senior Men’s 400m, with a new personal best of 47.45 seconds. 

Over the past two years, Aaron has made significant strides in his sprinting, lowering his 100m time to 10.67 seconds and his 200m to 21.58 seconds. Backed by consistent, high-quality training with UCG and the Galway City Harriers sprint group, this speed is now translating to success in his longer sprint events.

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Condolences

Tullamore Harriers extends its sincere condolences to Tommie Carberry on the recent passing of his mother, Margaret Carberry. May she rest in peace

Fixtures

Tuesday 15^th April, Club League 3K

Monday 21^st of April, Leinster 10 Mile Championships, St Anne’s Park, Raheny

Sunday 27^th April, Rhode 5k

Saturday 3^rd May, Leinster Novice Road Championships, Gowran Co Kilkenny

Sunday 11^th May – Ashling Murphy 4 Mile.

Senior Training

Training Tuesday and Thursday evenings from 6.40pm to 8.30pm.

For any enquiries contact club captains Glen 0868275228 or Rita 0868386687