Another great weekend on the roads for Athenry.

In Turin this morning, Ruthann Sheahan finished a brilliant 11th in the World at the IAU 24Hour World Championships. Competing on a 2km loop Ruthann covered 112 laps before having to bow out with 44 minutes left on the clock, coming agonisingly close to her own national record of 229km. Ruthann had kept a steady pace throughout the day to pick off those in front of her & with 2 hours left on the clock was running in fourth position in the world. She placed first amongst the Irish contingent of 5 who travelled over for the race with Susan McCartney following not too far behind & a larger gap to the male team of Eoin Keith, John O' Regan & Eddie Gallen. As this race also doubled up as the European Championships she also place 7th in Europe. Congrats Ruthann on a brilliant performance.

Closer to home Jim Leahy ran a stormer to place as first M50 in the Connemara Ultra. Taking part in his first race over this distance as a training run for his crack at the Portumna 100k this June, Jim ran a steady race throughout & according to onookers was never in any trouble (made it look easy they say!!!) finishing in a brilliant time of 5.41.34. Another brilliant performance over the longer distance by Athenry.

We had three members taking part in the half marathon with Brian Somers first home in a time of 1.36.45, a very credible time in Connemara on what is a positively uphill course (310m of climbing with only 260m of downhill, but not for the life of me can I figure out where those 260m are!!). Don Nyhan finished with a time of 1.44.04 & Jane Mangan came home in 2.06.31. Well done to all for great times on one of the harder courses out there.