BY JOHN WALSHE
BANTRY athlete Danny Mullins got the perfect start to what promises to be a special week with victory at the Dunmanway 10km, an event that attracted almost 300 runners.
A recent career move saw the 31-year-old joining An Garda Síochána and he was due to start the first day in his new occupation the following morning at his initial posting in Killarney.
‘I decided to join nine months ago so it’s a big change to my previous occupation as a digger driver,’ he explained.
The new move seems certainly to have benefited his running as Mullins followed on from a 10km personal best of 32:39 at the Cork City event two weeks ago with a third-place finish at the Musgrave 5km the previous Wednesday.
He had 12 seconds to spare over last year’s Dunmanway winner, Mark Walsh from Leevale, when crossing the line in a time of 33:12, over a minute-and-a-half faster than he ran two years ago when finishing fourth.
Sarah Ryan, Sinead O’Keeffe and Sinead O’Regan representing Courceys AC at the Dunmanway 10km.
‘I was with Mark for around the first three miles, so I pulled away after that. I’ll keep going now at the 5kms and 10kms and will probably target a half-marathon in the autumn, but I don’t have any marathon plans at the moment,’ said Mullins who ran 2:37 for the full distance at Dublin in 2023. Michael Dullea from the Skibbereen club, who has also been in good form in recent weeks, took third in a time of 35:13.
There was also a Bantry connection to the women’s winner as Siobhan Holland, now with the Eagle club in Cork, is originally from down that direction.
‘I was on my own all the way, it was lovely to win as I’m still getting over the Cork Marathon two weeks ago,’ said Holland who took second in her F45 category in Cork with a fine time of 3:15:16. Her 43:24 around the undulating Dunmanway roads gave her a two-minute margin over runner-up Hilary Walsh from Rosscarbery (45:33) with Sinead O’Regan from the Courceys club taking third in 46:04.
The prizes for the first two locals went respectively to Ivan Sweetman (38:00) and Susan Collins (46:13).
