Strabane mother and son enjoy a weekend of success

MOTHER and son, Ann-Marie and Alfie McGlynn enjoyed a successful weekend on the roads and on the track recently.

Thirteen year-old Alfie, representing Strabane Athletic Club, was the first member of the McGlynn family to shine on the Saturday when he ran a PB of 10.86 seconds in the under-14 boys 60mH to finish second behind his good friend, Lifford Strabane AC’s Ryan Boyle, who finished in 10.76 seconds at the Ulster Indoor Championships in Athlone.

“I’d have been disappointed for Alfie had he not performed because the pressure of competing is horrendous, but Ryan and Alfie are good friends and it’s always a ding-dong between them in the hurdles,” observed Ann-Marie, who alongside husband Trev is a coach at the recently relaunched Strabane Athletic Club.

She continued: “They both drive each other on and that’s why they both ran PB’s because they both ran to the line. It’s great and we’ve all had it, when I was younger I raced against my friends and it brings the best out of you.

“It’s great for them and Ryan had a great day [winning two gold medals and a silver].”

Having travelled down to Athlone for Alfie’s participation in the Ulster Indoor’s, the McGlynn’s decided to make a weekend of it and head to Lusk for the 4-mile race there so Ann-Marie could get a race in ahead of the National 10K Championships later this month.

And that decision proved a fruitful one as she not only won the women’s race but she also set a new course record of 20.30 minutes.

“It was a good blow out for the 10K Championships,” acknowledged Ann-Marie, who was represening Letterkenny AC in the race. “I didn’t even know what the course record was before I went but in my head I wanted to run about 5/10 mile pace or close to it and that would have given me 20.40, so to go 20.30 I’m delighted with that.

“I was in third place for the first mile, then I went into second and after two miles I passed out the girl and I just thought ‘try to run home strong’ and that’s what I did.

“I kept the same pace the whole way, I didn’t do anything silly, I just ran my own race and ran to my own strengths and 20.30 in the end, I’m delighted with that and it gave me an idea where I’m at.”

Also competing in Lusk was Strabane Athletic Club’s Laurence O’Neill, who is coached by Ann-Marie, and she was delighted with his performance on the day, when he finished in a time of 21.04 minutes.

“It was great to see him run a PB,” she beamed. “It was a solid effort and it was great for him. He held his own and he learned a lot from that outing.”

Both Ann-Marie and Laurence will race in the National 10K Road Race Championships in Dunboyne on the 23rd of March and then Ann-Marie is hoping to represent Ireland at the European Half Marathon Championships in Brussels in April when Laurence and Strabane woman, Claire McGuigan, will also run in the open event.