Silver medals for Ballymore siblings as Ray shines in Seville
It was a weekend to remember for Westmeath athletes with Ballymore siblings Oisin and Aisling Lane both winning silver medals at the National Senior Indoor Championships on Sunday.
Both of them were competing in the technical race walk discipline, with Aisling winning silver over 3000 metres, a feat matched by her brother Oisin over 5,000m.
Meanwhile, their Mullingar Harriers AC colleague Claire Fagan claimed her first senior track title with a 9:33.35 personal best performance in the women’s 3,000m in the Sport Ireland National Indoor Arena.
Fagan stayed on strongly up the home straight to pip Niamh Kearney (Raheny Shamrock AC) on the line (9:33.47). Defending champion Cheryl Nolan (St Abban's AC) put up a gallant defence of her title to cross in third.
Aisling Lane competed in the 3,000m race walk, where nearly 20 athletes crowded onto the tight track, meaning the quicker athletes had lots of work to do to pass the slower, lapped athletes over the 15-lap race.
Aisling quickly settled in to her stride and by the halfway point had consolidated her position in second place, holding her form and technique to come home second and clinch the silver medal in 14 minutes 21.57 seconds. This is a new personal best, which was a great reward for a top class effort.
Oisin Lane led out the 5,000m race walk, closely tracked by David Kenny (Farranfore Maine Valley AC). The pair kept pulling clear of the field as the laps counted down, but they had to remain mindful of the judges who watched carefully for fouls in this extremely technical event. With four laps to go, Kenny passed Oisin and showed his class to steadily pull clear, but Oisín kept up the pressure and came home in second place.
Further afield, Castledaly resident Ray Hynes ran an absolutely superb marathon in Seville, recording a time of 2.25 in the southern Spanish city.
Now a member of Mullingar Harriers, Ray previously represented Donore Harriers in Dublin and is no stranger to winning prizes over various distances.
Ray is married to Therese Casey from Castledaly and the couple live in the local area. The Casey family is very well regarded in sporting circles with Therese's brothers Russell, Joe and JP all winning various football honours with Castledaly and Westmeath.