Successful week for Ledwith

In-form Fr Murphy athlete Andrew Ledwith had a busy and successful few days when he won a number of events in quick succession. He started off on Wednesday evening of last week when he won the 5km Tullynally Callenge at Castlepollard in 15 minutes 53 seconds finishing best in a field of over 400 runners. Ledwith's impressive run resulted in him crossing the line ahead of his nearest challengers, Jake Byrne and Vinny Connolly from the Mullingar Harriers. On Saturday Ledwith switched his attention on the Dunleer four-mile road race and once again he produced the performance required to get the better of his nearest opponents. He won in a time of 19 minutes 41 seconds finishing ahead of a field of 350 runners. Not content with those two triumphs Ledwith travelled to Westmeath for the famous Lakeland 15-mile road race. It might be expected that he would show some tiredness considering his energy-sapping schedule. Instead Ledwith displayed impressive form leading the field from the gun and going on to win in one hour 17 minutes. Five athletes from Dunboyne competed in the Castlepollard race with Luke Forde putting in a big performance to take victory in the junior category and fifth overall. Fiona Reid was also prominent finishing second in the women's category and 32nd overall. Morgan McDonagh, just back from a break, ran a very respectable 16.25 to finish in ninth place while Tony O'Neill and Tom Fallon also gave decent performances. Trim AC was once again well represented at Castlepollard and the men's team were led home by Sean Murphy while Clare Smith led the women's squad home. In the age categories Sean Sheehy finished second in the M55 with a time of 19 minutes 25 seconds behind Ben Vaitkavacius (Mullingar Harriers). In the W50 grade Ann Tobin followed her recent runner up finish in the Daingean 5km with a similar placing in the Westmeath event. Reid was also in action in the Dunleer race on Saturday and she put in one of her best performances of late to secure second place. At the Celbridge 5km race on Sunday Dunboyne's Rory McDonnell finished in third place while Forde was sixth overall and the first junior home. David Galbraith, Ray Mitchell and Antoinette Howlin put in strong performances. Dunboyne's Karen O'Hanlon was fourth in the IMRA World Championship Trial at Crone Wood in Wicklow on Sunday. The World Mountain Running Championships are due to take place in Albania inSeptember.