Michael Carney competed in the Leinster indoor track and field championships in the national indoor centre in Abbotstown on Saturday last. The North Sligo runner/coach competed in the 1k race in the Master pentathlon competition as a guest. Carney who won the over 70 1500m at the National Masters indoors in Athlone a few weeks ago was targeting the national over 70 record in this 1k event. The record of 3min 44.26 secs which was set by Roscommon man and long time Strandhill resident John McDermott at the world indoor master championships in Budapest in 2014. McDermott who is a legend in master running and holds many irish records. He was special guest of honour at the North Sligo club award night in 2019 after winning the over 75 400m world title that year.
The North Sligo man let Mullingar Harriers athlete Aiden O'Donoghue take out the pace for the first of the 5 laps race, Carney then hit the front and ratcheted up the pace, he went faster with each lap and came through the finish line in a new record of 3min 34.13 secs chopping 10.13 secs off the 9 year old record. Picture attached shows Michael Carney leading the field on his way to a new personal best time.
North Sligo athletes were in action in the Bundoran 10 mile race, Alan Wallace had a superb race chopping over 2 mins off his previous best when he clocked 58 min 5 sec, Trish Lee ran a great race when finishing 2nd in the over 50 category in 1 hour 9 min 53 sec, Linda Lally had a fine run to cross the finish line in 1h 14m 10sec, Stephanie McSharry finished in 1h 26m 8sec and
Fiona Lenehan finished in 1h 29m 52sec. John Croghan finished the 5k in 36min 7 sec.
The Grange Good Friday 5k will take place on Friday 7th April starting at 7pm, entries on the North Sligo AC website. This event proved very popular last year with large numbers taking part. This year all funds raised will go to Goal to help the victims of the earthquake in Syria and Turkey.