Eagle athlete Siobhan Holland wins the Dunmanway 10km road race

Eagle athlete Siobhan Holland showed she was well recovered from the Cork City Marathon two weeks before with a clear victory at the Dunmanway 10km, a race that attracted almost 300 runners.

"I was on my own all the way, it was lovely to win as I’m still getting over the marathon,” said Holland, who took second in her F45 category in the Cork event with a fine time of 3:15:16. 

The Wednesday before Dunmanway, she had also taken part in the Musgrave 5km, again taking a category prize.

Holland’s time of 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 place in 46:04.

Danny Mullins from Bantry got what would be a special week off to a good start with victory in the men’s race.

A recent career move saw the 31-year-old joining An Garda Síochána and he was due to commence 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 before 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.

‘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 back 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.

The prizes for the first two locals at Dunmanway went respectively to Ivan Sweetman (38:00) and Susan Collins (46:13).

Results:

Men:

1 D Mullins (Bantry) 33:12; 2 M Walsh (Leevale) 33:24; 3 M Dullea (Skibbereen) 35:13; 4 C Watt (Cork TC) 36:09; 5 C Collins (unatt, M45) 36:16; 6 K McKeown (Grange-Fermoy, M50) 36:26.

Women:

1 S Holland (Eagle, F45) 43:24; 2 H Walsh (unatt) 45:33; 3 S O’Regan (Courceys, F40) 46:04; 4 S Collins (unatt, F40) 46:13; 5 A O’Neill (Doheny, F55) 46:17; 6 S O’Keeffe (Courceys, F45) 46:43.