A record breaking day for Tuam AC on Sunday when almost 600 runners, joggers and walkers completed our new single lap course around Cloonthue. Tuam AC had hoped for a record entry of 500 and we were blessed with good weather on Sunday and a nice cool breeze which encouraged over 600 to enter the race. The overall winner in the men’s race was well known Dublin based runner Sean Hehir who won the race in a fantastic 24.10 and he was followed just 4 seconds later in 24.14 by one of Northern Ireland’s best known runners Paddy Hamilton and we were truly honoured that he made the long journey from Belfast to Tuam on Sunday. Third place went to Roger Barratt of Ballina AC who was absolutely flying at the finish. Mayo AC made a clean sweep of the ladies race with Mary Gleeson winning in 29.35 followed by Colette Tuohy in 29.56 and Kathy Connolly in 31.27. There were also a number of category winners. The full results are available here.
Tuam did very well once again with Enda Mannion leading the way in 27.23 to win the Harold Campbell Cup and we would like to thank Angela Boyle for making the cup available to the club for the race. Enda was followed by last years winner Dan O’Rourke. Tuam AC also had category winners with Tommy Joe Whyte , Martin Hynes and Roger Rushe all making it onto the podium. Other local winners included Una Browne from Kilbannon who ran a great race.
Everybody returned to the Mercy Gym after the race for a well earned cup of tea, the prize giving and the traditional post race analysis which resulted in some very positive feedback on the new course.
Tuam AC would like to thank everybody who helped in anyway to make Sunday such a great success for the club and the town. It would not be possible to thank everybody here but a special mention must go to Sgt Pat Hastings and his colleagues in Tuam Garda Station, The Order of Malta and all the residents of Gilmartin Rd, Tirboy , Cloonthue and Athenry Rd for their very generous support of the runners. It was very much appreciated and we hope to see you all again in 2013.
30 under 30
A friend of mine commented on the quality of the field we had, and I’m just after checking the results. We had 30 runners under 30 minutes which is a great reflection of the calibre of runners who joined us in Tuam on Sunday.