Maria McCarthy may have come late to the sport of athletics, but she is certainly making her mark! Over the last two weeks she represented Ireland in the
2015 World Masters Athletics championships at Lyon in France and earned herself an individual silver medal in the Irish colours. On August 7th, competing in the W40 5000m track event the Farranfore Maine Valley AC lady and another Irish athlete, Cathy McCourt, amongst the front group. Not long into the race the field began to spread out as the searing heat took its toll. All athletes were finding the heat difficult with the pace a lot slower than normal. With 3 laps to go, Maria was in 2nd place just behind a Finland athlete and looking very comfortable. Cathy McCourt 100m behind in 3rd place. Maria made an attack for first place but the Finland athlete had enough to keep in the lead. And so it finished with Maria crossing the line in 2nd place (18:55.63) just 12 seconds adrift of winner Paula Tukiainen from Finland (18:43.47), but well clear of 3rd placed Cathy McCourt also representing Ireland (19:35.59). This was a major achievement considering athletes had to contend with temperatures exceeding 38oC. Maria was understandably
“absolutely thrilled” after this fine achievement.
Maria also contested the 1500m track race and placed 2nd in her heat in a time of 4:54.36. This was the third fastest time over the three heats of 29 runners in total. In the final Maria which took place two days later was placed 5th with a time of 4:51.22.
Maria commented after the race: “the pace of the last 800m was really fast, my legs were just too tired to keep with the leaders. I was delighted with making the final and placed in top 5…” Maria was just 1 second shy of her seasons best time, which given the hot and humid conditions indicates that she ran to her maximum potential on the day.
Maria who is self-coached felt like she was running right for the first time in her life, doing the right training. She changed from previously competing in the longer distances such as marathons & half marathons to the shorter distances of 1500m to 5000m. Then it was just a question of executing it all in the Worlds. She certainly enjoyed the build-up, training with athletes such as Shona Heaslip, Caitriona Barry & Niamh O’Sullivan. Niamh who also competed in the Worlds and won an individual silver in W50 5000m and team silver in the cross country.
Maria, originally from Clonmel, Co. Tipperary and now living with her husband and 4 young children in Milltown, joined Farranfore Maine Valley AC in 2011 with no previous athletics exposure. Since then she has become a popular figure in the sport of athletics within the county and at national level. She has won most major senior championship titles in Kerry & Munster even as a master athlete. At National level she was part of numerous county teams who won national cross country titles and holds many individual medals from the National Masters Track & cross country.
During her time with Farranfore Maine Valley she has continuously educated herself and is now a qualified personal coach from NTC and holds a level 2 athletics coaching cert specialising in endurance. Maria is one of our main coaches within the club for juveniles and senior athletes. Everyone in the club and athletics in Kerry are so proud of her achievements…we just wish she started in the sport 20 years earlier..
