Top Galway road runner is still pounding out the miles

Date Published: 02-May-2013

 THIS Sunday, the ‘prodigal son’ of Connacht athletics will make its return when the resurrected AAI Connacht 10km Road Race Championships takes place around Ballybrit Racecourse – service road – and the surrounding roadways.

After a lapse in excess of two decades, the Championships – spearheaded by Loughrea AC – is part of the Great Race Galway and all combined, the multi-faceted event is sure to attract athletes of all ages and abilities from clubs right across the province.

One man who would love to be running in the provincial road race is former five-time winner Gerry Ryan from Attymon but, unfortunately – or fortunately – he is putting the final touch on his preparations for the European Veterans Athletics (non-stadia) Championships which take place in Upice, Czech Republic later in the month.

Ryan, who these days runs in the Craughwell AC singlet, is no stranger to Galway, Connacht, national and international athletics, having featured prominently on all four fronts over the last three decades – between track, cross country and road race events.

Indeed, in the late 80s, he was one of the top Irish athletes and in 1988 he was duly recognised by the Galway Sports Stars for his achievements in the previous 12 months, which included road race victories in Loughgeorge, Ballinasloe and, most notably, the Moyne 10k in Thurles, where he finished ahead of a top quality field.

His successes were not only confined to the road that year as he also won the Galway cross-country title – no surprise as the year previous he had come within 13 seconds of claiming the national cross country crown. In all, Ryan has won the Galway cross country title six times, the Connacht crown seven times and he has two silver and a bronze medal in the national competition.

Then again, running is very much in his blood. His father Kevin was an All-Ireland senior cross country champion and he, along with Ryan’s mother Mary, nurtured this love in Gerry from an early age. Consequently, Ryan competed in both national and secondary school events while also honing his talents in his teens with Athenry Athletics Club.

“I won some pretty good titles at a young age and I got noticed by the BLE – now Athletics Ireland – and they asked me if I was interested in going on a scholarship to United States – to Villanova University, which was one of the top colleges in the States. I wasn’t fully 17 and I thought over it for a while but nobody really encouraged me to go, I suppose,” he says.

“To make a long story short, I decided against it. It became a serious regret, particularly when I was hitting my late 20s. I said ‘what sort of a fool was I that I didn’t actually go over’. I suppose, although I have three sisters, I am an only son at home and we have a farm and that may have had an impact on my decision. I felt obliged to stay at home.”

In any event, Ryan didn’t go and, instead, transferred to Loughrea AC which had a more “stable” senior section at the time. He immediately reaped the benefits and over the ensuing years claimed a plethora of titles between the three disciplines.

“I also got selected to run for Ireland internationally. There was a famous road race called the Quinlan Cup in Tullamore, with the cream of all the senior athletes in Ireland taking part. In fact, it was really an international race on the road and anyone who finished in the top three in that was guaranteed to race for Ireland. Most years, I finished in the top three.

“Anyway, the first international I got was in Gateshead in the North of England. I remember Steve Cram (1983 1,500m World Champion) was in that race and I finished fourth in that event. It was kind of a shock to the system though because I was moving up another class from what I did in Ireland.”

For more, read this week’s Galway City Tribune.