IRISH international Andrew Ledwith of Fr Murphy’s, Meath, won the 31st Annual Tinryland AC Rockford road race in fine style at the weekend.
From the start Ledwith signalled his intentions and quickly opened up a lead on the rest of the field along with former winner Mick Clohisey and Cillian O’Leary, both of Raheny, until the Kildalkey, Co. Meath native opened a decisive gap at the 2 mile mark.
Having gone through the two-mile mark in under nine minutes the former NCAA American Colleges Cross Country Bronze Medallist never relinquished control of the race and won in a time of 19 mins 28, which was 30 seconds ahead of the 2nd placed O’Leary with Clohisey 10 seconds further behind in 3rd place.
The Pat Corcoran Memorial Trophy was presented to Pat Byrne after the race for being the first Carlow athlete home on the day (sixth).
The Masters over 40 section was won by Jim Stafford of Slaney Olympic and the junior men’s event was won by the fast finishing John Murphy of Gowran.
The team event was won again by Raheny on 19 pts with Tinryland second on 72 pts with the scorers being Byrne 6th, the excellent Mick Kehoe 17th, Tommy Payne 19th and Eddie Walsh in 30th position.
Other local athletes who performed well on the day included Colin Payne, Jeremiah O’Sullivan, John Dillon JJ Murphy (over 55 winner), Peter Murphy (over 60 winner) and Denis Shannon 48th.
In the women’s race Polish athlete Patrcyja Wlodarczyk of Raheny produced an outstanding display to win in a time of 22 mins.
There was also a great showing from Tinryland’s young star Deirdre Doyle who took third place in 23 mins 59 and looks likely to continue this form into the US college season with Bryant University, Rhode Island next year.
The St Abban’s team of Teresa Agar, Collette English and Mairead O’Kane took the team prize for the second consecutive year.
Special mention should also go to Tinryland stalwart Ann Brennan who was running the Rockford for the final time on Sunday last and once again had a creditable run.
This year’s event was completely revamped and turned out to be an outstanding success with a record turnout of almost 200 athletes, fun runners and walkers.
The winners of the main prizes included Keith McGrath, Tinryland (€1,000 Holiday Voucher), John Frier, Raheny (Colour Television), Rock Pender, Bagenalstown (weekend away) and Jeremiah O’Sullivan (Jewellery voucher).
The prize-giving and showing of the race video took place afterwards in Tinryland GAA Centre, Rathcrogue.
Prior to the race the Rockford Mini Marathon was held for juveniles between the ages of 8 and 15 with 60 competitors taking part.
Great credit is due to race director Sean Doyle and his team of local organisers in particular Pat and Carol Byrne, the caterers and stewards for the vast amount of work put in over the last few months which ensured the event was such a success and showed that this will be a fixture to be reckoned with on the Irish athletics calendar for a long time to come.