(By John Walshe)
This month sees one of Ireland’s legendary distance runners celebrating his 81st birthday. Mick Molloy was born on March 13th, 1938, and during the 1960s won three Irish marathon championships, along with titles at 10 miles, 15 miles and cross-country. He also represented his country in the marathon at both the 1968 Olympics and 1969 European Championships.
Molloy grew up beside Lough Corrib, four-and-a-half miles from Oughterard in County Galway. His first sporting involvement was with Gaelic Football but all that changed at the age of 18 when he ran his first cross-country race. In a full page feature in the Connacht Tribune last December, Molloy recalls that day: “My only mode of transport at the time was a bicycle and so after returning from Mass in Oughterard I headed to Dunmore (100 mile round trip) and lined up with 45 other runners, I finished in eight place.
Later the same year he transferred that winning form to the road with victory in the Irish Marathon at Banteer in 2:24:45. A second marathon title (2:22:52) followed two years later in his native Galway which qualified him for that year’s Olympic Games.
In the warm and altitude conditions of Mexico City, Molloy had to discard his shoes after 14 miles due to blisters but he gallantly carried on to finish 41st of the 74 starters in a time of 2:48:13. Despite the setback of a serious ankle injury he was able to retain his national marathon title (2:22:32) the following year of 1969 and went on to finish a creditable 13th in 2:28:38 at the European Marathon in Athens.
Five years later, in September 1974, Molloy won the prestigious Berchem marathon in Belgium, but not without drama: “I was leading the race at 15 miles when the official car turned down a side road for petrol and I followed; not understanding the language, I lost about a minute-and-a-half and by the time I got back on the correct road I was back in eight place.”
He eventually caught the leaders at 21 miles and went on to win by over two minutes in 2:18:41, a time he would marginally improve to 2:18:22 (which remained his fastest) when finishing 12th the following year at Kosice. This was less than a minute behind Waldemar Cierpinski who would go on to become dual Olympic champion at Montreal (1976) and Moscow (1980).
