Drogheda & District athlete Nuala Reilly will no doubt be celebrating for some time to come her win, as part of the Irish women’s 4 x 800m indoor relays team, that smashed the world record in a new time of 14min 16.72 in the National indoor arena in Abbotstown.  

The win is all the more amazing given that Nuala is more accustomed to the Half marathon than the track, but Nuala, never one to shy away from a challenge, combined beautifully to clinch the new world record.

It was truly an awesome week for Drogheda & District athletes the night before also as there were personal best times from Gerry O'Connor in the 400m, Kerry McHugh and Sophie Kinsella in the 800m, and terrific running from all our DDAC Athletes competing. Here's a rundown of the times;

• Girls U12 200m Relay Team – 2.18.55
• Girls U14 200m Relay Team - 2.06.21
• 60m - Danielle Nolan – 8.96
• 60m – Mary Flanagan
• 60m - Frank Cruise - 9.60
• 800m - Sophie Kinsella - 2.35.29 - PB
• 800m - Kerry McHugh - 3.15.94 - PB
• 400m - Mary Kinsella - 1.16.52
• 400m - Gerry O'Connor - 1.01.78 - PB
• 400m - Paul Stuart - 1.01.20
• 400m - Cormac Canning - 54.27
• 400m - Andrew Kelly - 52.08
• 400m - Jordan Kelly - 53.09
• 400m - Louis O'Shea - 53.41

Meanwhile Wednesday was another great day for Drogheda & District AC Youths at the Leinster Schools Cross Country in the Phoenix Park.

Eleanor Mc Mahon representing Our Lady's College Greenhills had a great run when finishing in 54th position in the Minor Girls 1,500m event, and Beatrice Cunningham representing Sacred Heart also had another super run when finishing 14th in the Junior girls 2,000m. This qualifies Beatrice for the All Ireland Schools Cross Country.

And on Sunday Beatrice and her sister Hannah Cunningham combined in the U15 Girls to win team gold alongside Eleanor McMahon and Bonnie Breach at the Ras na hÉireann, where there were exciting sprint finishes that had onlookers enthralled.  It was a great day also for Niamh Carroll who placed 5th in the U19 and Aine Carroll who placed 3rd in the u17 race.

Later on there were great performance from the men in the Senior & Masters combined race as Paddy Murphy was first in his category and Shane Larkin 3rd in his category respectively.

There were stellar performances on Thursday evening by Drogheda & District AC at the prestigious Armagh International Road Race.

Mary Leech and Yasmin Canning led the charge in the Ladies 3K race while Christopher Keenan also took on some of the finest athletes in the world on the hallowed roads. Mary took 2nd place in her category completing the distance in 11:11, closely followed by Yasmin Canning who took 3rd in her category in 11:51 secs

Christopher Keenan finished with a terrific time (8:42), he must have taken heart from having taken 3.78 off his previous best for the 1500m at the Irish University indoor championship the previous Sunday to complete the metric mile in fifth place with a time of 3:55.67.

And in the US, at the Collegiate Track and Field held at Ashland University we're delighted that Matthew O'Shea finished in third place with a fantastic 1:56.94. Matthew was also a member of the winning Charlestown University 4 x400m relay team

And finally, Tadhg Donnelly was agonisingly close to the magical 4 minute mile as he had another incredible run last Friday at the Fastrack National Invitational, finishing 6th in the indoor mile with a time of 4.00.71.