Neilus Aherne Takes All-Ireland Gold!
Article by regular contributor John
Walshe
One of the happiest winners at the recent masters cross-country in
Dundalk was Midleton man Neilus Aherne who won his first-ever national
gold in the M60 category.
Tuning in to C103 FM last Sunday week a
few minutes before seven in the evening, the familiar tones of John
Cashman announced that Neilus Aherne had taken the M60 title at the
GloHealth Athletics Ireland National Masters Cross-Country.
The first thought was, ‘Neilus Aherne, over 60? – that can’t be right’.
But yes, it was true as the Ladysbridge man had reached that milestone
- now known as the ‘new 40’ – just five days before. With a bronze team
medal from the M55 category at the previous year’s championship, the
Midleton AC athlete travelled to Dundalk not knowing what to expect
from his new age-group. “I suppose I would have been delighted with a
medal of any description, so to win the gold I’m absolutely thrilled –
I’m still pinching myself,” admitted the still-elated Neilus this past
week.
With over 250 runners ranging in age from over-35 to over-75 in the 7km
race, it was extremely difficult to know where you were in relation to
those in your age-group. When the initial results were displayed,
Neilus was placed in second position. “When the results were put up on
wall, there was another runner ahead of me,” he explained. “Then
someone said to me I’d won so I asked Cork Team Manager, Paddy Buckley
to double check and he arrived back out and said ‘you’re number one’,
and shook my hand.”
With a time of 28:44, Neilus finished over a half-minute clear of Derry
runner Gerry O’Doherty and he was one of only three Cork runners to win
individual titles at the Louth venue, the others being Leevale athletes
Tim Twomey (M35) and Carmel Parnell (F60). Although there is no M60
team contest at this level, Neilus’ brilliant performance can be put
into perspective when you realise he was the first scorer on the Cork
M50 team who finished in fifth position.
In a long career which has seen the man from the ‘Bridge compete with
distinction over a variety of distances, it all began at the age of 12
when he first joined the Youghal club, as he recalled a number of years
ago. “I first started off with Youghal but then I went to boarding
school to St Colman’s where the hurling took over. I played in a few
Harty Cup games while there and when I finished college I played with
Fr O’Neill’s, although we didn’t win a whole lot in those days.”
Neilus was in his early thirties before the attraction of running lured
him back. He remembers his first marathon, the Cork event of over 30
years ago, for a rather special reason: “My brother Dick was one of the
first from this area to run a marathon but sadly he died a year later so
Michael Holland and myself decided to run the Cork and Dublin events in
his memory that year,” he remembers. Five years ago, he ran both the
Longford and Dublin marathons and in the latter achieved the ultimate
ambition of any club runner when breaking the three-hour barrier, his
chip time showing 2:59:55.
There is another
marathon, however, that’s firmly etched in Neilus’ mind. It was the
Olympic Games of Los Angeles in 1984 where John Treacy won a famous
silver medal for Ireland. “I was working in Sydney on a pipeline at the
time and we were listening to the radio commentary of the marathon.
Robert de Castella was the great Australian hope but as we listened we
heard how Jerry Kiernan and Treacy were moving up the field and when
Treacy crossed the line in second place, I can tell you we weren’t long
in coming out of the trench to celebrate.”
As that Cork Sports Sunday
programme drew to a conclusion, presenter Rory Burke bowed out with a
song that was certainly appropriate to the occasion – ‘The Winner Takes
It All’ from Abba. For Neilus Aherne earlier that day around the playing
fields of Dundalk IT, you could certainly say winning was never as
sweet.