Dublin Clubs activities roundup, 11 - 13 August 2023, Lindie Naughton

TRACK

DSD retained the National League final in Tullamore on Sunday (August 13), the DSD Women took their eight consecutive and twelfth premier league title overall, while defending champions Clonliffe Harriers lost out to Leevale AC in the men’s premier division.After a long day’s competition, Clonliffe had accumulated the most points over the twenty events on the programme - twelve track and eight field. But when the top fifteen results only were counted, it was Leevale AC, runners-up last year, who came out on top, denying Clonliffe an eighth consecutive win. Winners for Clonliffe included a rejuvenated Brian Gregan 400m , Eoin Sheridan  discus, and Rory Gunning javelin. But as always in the league, which will celebrate its 50th anniversary next year, the club with the strongest roster of sprinters will inevitably win.In the women’s competition, sprinters also laid the bedrock for DSD’s victory with  Mollie O’Reilly winning the 100m and  Molly Hourihan the 200m  for DSD AC. Other wins for the club came from Eimear Maher 800m, Molly Mullally triple jump Ciara Wilson Bowen walk. For second place, Leevale pipped Clonliffe, despite strong performances by Leah Bergin, winner of the 400m, the 4 x 400m team and Clonliffe’s new member Jessica Tappin, a former multi-eventer. Tappin, who took her first national 400m hurdles title at Santry a few weeks ago,  won both the 100m the 400m hurdles and finished second in the shot put.Winning the first division titles were the Raheny Shamrock men and the Tullamore Harriers women. Highlights for Raheny included sprint wins for Mark Smyth in the 100m and 200m, a 800m and 1500m double for Cillian Kirwan, long jump victory for Colm Bourke  and an epic victory for Stephen Fay in the 5000m. The DSD men finished third.

At the All-Ireland Masters Championships a day earlier, also in Tullamore, Cathal McHale of Clonliffe Harriers ran a smart race to win the men’s M35 5000m in 15:58.01. McHale tucked stayed with the lead pack for most of the race, only making his break with the line in sight. Other Dublin winners included Maria Jones (Sportsworld AC) who was a clear winner of the W35 1500m title in 4:47.51, Mary Horgan (Crusaders AC) was was fastest overall in the women’s 800m with a time of 2:16.07. In the sprints, Dublin winners included  Adina Gheorghiu (DSD AC) W45 100m and 200m, Shane Sheridan (DSD AC) M60 100m and 200m, Eugene Byrne (Raheny Shamrock AC) M65 100m and 200m, Ruaidhri Kedney (DSDAC) M40 200m, Tessa O’Neill (Crusaders AC)W45 400m, Carol Kearney (Lucan Harriers) W55 400m, Edel Maguire (Clonliffe Harriers) W60 400m, Lucan Harriers , women’s 4 x 100, with Rathfarnham WSAF 2nd. In the field events, Katriona Power (Lucan Harriers) won the W50 discus, hammer and weight; other winners were Frances Mansfield (Clonliffe Harriers) W75 hammer, Patsy Conboy (Bros Pearse AC) M80 discus, hammer and weight, David Moore (Raheny Shamrock) M45 hammer, Vanessa Sallier (Rathfarnham WSAF AC)  W50 high jump, Edel Maguire W60 high jump, Xavier Hubert (LSA AC) M45 high jump,  Peadar McGing (DSD AC) M65 high jump, long jump and pole vault, Niall Sherlock (Clonliffe Harriers) M35 long jump, David Donegan (Clonliffe Harriers) M40 pole vault, Patrick Curran (Tallaght AC) M45 pole vault,  David Moore (Raheny Shamrock AC)  M45 shot put, George Wyatt 9DSD AC) M55 triple jump, Stephen Fee (Lusk AC) M40 weight, Allan Neill (Donore Harriers) M50 weight, 

Elizabeth Ndudi’s long jump gold medal proved the highlight of an encouraging Irish performance at the European Athletics U20 Championships, Jeruselem, Israel held from Monday to Thursday last week (August 7-10).It was a first field event gold for any Irish athlete at this level. Although Dublin born, Ndudi left Dublin for Nantes, France with her family at the age of 11. In 2022, she became eligible to compete for Ireland internationally and makes regular trips back to Ireland. In Jerusalem, she won the medal with a lifetime best of 6.65m that is an Irish U20 record and puts her second on the all time Irish list behind Kelly Proper, who jumped 6.10 indoors in 2010. With her secondary schooling now complete, Ndudi is due to take up an athletics scholarship  in the USA at the University of Illinois

ROADS 

A large number of Dublin club athletes headed west for the Streets of Galway 8km on Friday evening (August 11),  which attracted an entry of 2,437 For Sportsworld, Karol Cronin was first M40 in 26:58, with his clubmate Gareth Murran second M40 in 27:18. 

On Sunday, Tudor Mircea Moldovan of Clonliffe Harriers won the Rock the Lakes Half Marathon in Craigavon, Co Armagh in a time of 69:35. In a Dublin double, Tara Kennedy of Raheny Shamrock AC was second in 89:25. 

League final pics at https://www.flickr.com/photos/lindie/albums/72177720310455330