TRACK AND FIELD
Without any question, sprinter Rhasidat Adeleke (Tallaght AC) proved the star of the All Ireland Track and Field Championships held in Santry over the weekend, winning the 100m in a new Irish record time of 11.13 secs. It means that Adeleke now has the full set of Irish sprint records - not only at her specialist 400m but also at 200m and 100m. She showed her delight after her race, enjoying every moment of a rare day spent at home and in front of the Santry crowd. In the middle and long distances, the race of the day was arguably the men’s 1500m, where Cathal Doyle (Clonliffe Harriers) showed typical racing smarts when when winning his third Irish outdoor title over the distance in a time of 3:44.15. With luck, Doyle’s run will book him a place on the Irish team for the Paris Olympics next month. In a tactical race, Luke McCann (UCD AC), who also aspires to Olympic selection, finished second in 3:44.54. While Sophie O’Sullivan was a clear winner of the women’s 1500m, previous winner Carla Sweeney (Rathfarnham WSAF AC) added some drama to the occasion when sprinting away from the pack to finish runner-up in in 4:21.13.Georgie Hartigan and Amy O’Donoghue, both DSD, finished fourth and fifth. Another thriller was the men’s 400m where Jack Raftery (Donore Harriers) out-sprinted pre-race favourite Chris O’Donnell (North Sligo AC) to win in 49.95. Finishing fifth was promising junior athlete Joe Doody (Cabinteely AC) in 46.90. Winning the women’s 400m was Sophie Becker (Raheny Shamrock) in 52.68.
In the men’s 5000m, defending champion Brian Fay (Raheny Shamrock) ran a perfectly judged race to retain his title in a time of 13 mins 43.61 secs. Fay unleashed a ferocious kick with a lap to go, having tucked in behind Efrem Gidey (Clonliffe Harriers) who had taken over at the front about halfway through the race. Gidey had no answer to Fay’s burst of speed and finished second in 13:52.30. John Travers (Donore Harriers), who had done his best to hold on the the frontrunners midway through the race, ended up ninth and third Dubliner in 14:09.99.Winning the B 5000m was Dylan Wright (Lucan Harriers) in 14:58:09. There was no such drama in the women’s 5000m, with Jodie McCann (Dublin City Harriers) taking her first national title in what was virrtually a solo run; her time was 15:44.52. Emma McEvoy (DSD) proved best of the Dublin club athletes, finishing eighth in 16:16.74.
Over 800m, Sarah Healy (UCD), who will race over 1500m at the Paris Olympics, ran a well-judged race winning in 2:03.64. Cillian Kirwan (Raheny Shamrock) finished second in the men’s 800m in 1:51.08; Dara Donoghue (Lucan Harriers) was fourth in 1:51.54. Mark Smyth (Raheny Shamrock), the Irish indoor record holder, proved the class of the field in the men’s 200m, winning in a season’s best time of 20.70, which unfortunately will not be enough to see him compete in next month’s Paris Olympics. Darragh Murphy (UCD AC) finished third in 21.29. In the women’s 200m, Aoife Lynch (Donore Harriers) finished third with a time of 24.40. Showing the growing status of sprinting in Irish athletes was the large entry for the men’s 100m with seven heats followed by three semi-finals and a final - all in less than three hours on Sunday morning. In the final, Irish record holder Israel Olatunde (Tallaght AC) showed a return to his form of two years ago, although he was pushed all the way by his former UCD training partner Bori Akinola, with the pair timed at 10.27 and 10.29. Third in 10.39 was Sean Aigboboh (Tallaght AC). It was a good day for Tallaght sprinters!
Defying Saturday’s miserable weather and slippery conditions to win the men’ shot was Eric Favors (Raheny Shamrock) with a best of 18:55. A day later, defending champion Nicola Tuthill (UCD AC) proved the class of the field in the women’s hammer, winning in 68.54, with Margaret Hayden (Tallaght AC) second with 59.02; as indeed she was last year. In the women’s discus, Niamh Fogarty (Raheny Shamrock) was a clear winner with a 53.66 effort with Anna Gavigan (LSA) second with 47.27. Fogarty, back in top form this season, also finished a close fourth in the shot. Simon Galligan (Clonliffe Harriers) finished second in the men’s hammer, followed by Killian Barry (UCD AC). Grace Casey (Clonliffe Harriers) was second in the women’s javelin.
Other medal winners for Dublin clubs were Mollie O’Reilly (DSD), third behind Adeleke in the 100m in 11.61. Kate Doherty (DSD) was third in the women’s 100m hurdles and Matthew Behan (Crusaders) third in a dramatic men’s 110m hurdles, where Adam Nolan (StLOT) was on his way to victory before tripping over the final hurdle. In the women’s 400m hurdles, Cara Murphy and Rachel Lynch, both DSD, finished second and third, while in the men’s race, Davitt Davitt (Clonliffe Harriers) was third. In the women’s steeplechase, Niamh Kearney (Raheny Shamrock) finished third. Retaining her Irish long jump title on Saturday with a 6.16 effort was Elizabeth Ndudi (DSD). Siun Quinn (Brothers Pearse AC) took bronze in the women’s high jump with a height of 1.70m, while Daphni Doulaptsi Teeowen (Raheny Shamrock) was a close second in the triple jump with a 12.60 leap. Kyran Maher (Clonliffe Harriers) was second in the men’s pole vault with 4.40. In the weight events, Stephen Fee (Lusk AC) finished second in the men’s weight for height and third in the weight for distance; his clubmate Colm Ó Donnchadha was third in the weight for height. In the U20 weight for height competitions, Ellie McGrath won the women’s title, with her Lusk clubmate Conor Geraghty second of the men.
At U20 level, Sean Quinn (DSD) won the men’s 3000m in 8:25.04, followed by Louise Woodger (MSB ) in 8:27.05. Lorraine O’Connor (Donore Harries) won the women’s race in 9:56.3, with Edel McCreery (Rathfarnham WSAF) third. Finally, in the women’s 4x100m relay on Saturday, UCD were the winners in 47.17 secs, with DSD second in 50.77. DSD also finished third in the men’s 4x100m in 43.59, with Cabinteely AC fourth. UCD finished second in the women's’ 4x400m with Crusaders third; Raheny Shamrock was second in the men’s race, followed by DSD. Clear winners of the mixed 4x400 relay in 3:34.97 on Sunday was the DSD quartet of Charlotte Burke, Rachel Lynch, David Bosch and Antoine Roquette. Overall, Raheny Shamrock topped the club medals table with five gold, two silver and two bronze medals. Leevale was second, UCD third and DSD fourth.
ROADS
Dundrum South Dublin took five of the top ten places at the Roscommon 10-Mile on Saturday (June 29). The race was round 6 of the Peugeot Race Series 2024. Killian Mooney, better known as a mountain runner, led the DSD team home in first place, just holding off the challenge of John Williamson (Dublin City Harriers) with the pair timed at 52 mins 24 secs and 52:25. Third in 52:42 was Eanna O Brádaigh (DSD) in 52.42, while fourth was DSD club stalwart Rob Corbally in 55:02. Of the DSD women, Sarah Mulligan was second in 61:49, with Maria McCambridge (DSD) fourth and first W40. Backed up by Emma Goddard, DSD were clear winners of the mixed team prize and picked up valuable points towards the overall result of the series. Dublin City Harriers finished second. Next round in the series is the Edenderry 10-Mile on July 14.
Ian Guiden (Clonliffe Harriers) finished second overall at the St Coca’s Kilcock 5km in Co Kildare on Friday (June 28) in 14:48 First junior was Rhys Johnson (Donore Harriers), who was sixth in 15:23 and also led his club to team victory over Clonliffe Harriers. Grace Lynch (Dundrum South Dublin) was second woman in 16:12, while in third place, Lisa Madden was leading Sportsworld to women’s team victory. Age groups winners from Dublin clubs were Michelle Begley (Waterstown Warriors) W55, Fiona Byrne (Civil Service AC) W60 and Paul MacGabhann (Sportsworld AC) M60.
At the Clonee 10km, in Co Meath on Thursday (June 27), Cillian O’Leary (Raheny Shamrock) was fourth and first M40 in 33:07. His clubmates Graham Ahearne and Ronan Wogan finished first and second M45. First woman was Faye Dervan (Dublin City Harriers) in 35:40, followed by Laura McDonnell (Rathfarnham WSAF AC, W40) in 36:33. Age group winners were Zoe Quinn (Raheny Shamrock), W45), Maura Matthews (Clonliffe Harriers) W50, Jean Carr (Clonliffe Harriers) W60, Brian O’Reilly (Clonliffe Harriers) M50, Paul Moran (Rathfarnham WSAF) M60 and Mick Carolan (Bros Pearse ) M65. In the team competition, Clonliffe finished best of the women and second of the men with Raheny Shamrock third.
Coming up:
Tuesday July 2: Lord Mayor of Raheny 2-Mile Series Rd 4 (of 13), 8pm. www.rahenyshamrock.ie
Wednesday July 3: Dublin Graded T-F Day 6, Santry, 7pm. 400/1500/hammer/shot/Javelin/
Saturday July 6: National T-F League, prelim round, TUS Athlone,11am. www.athleticsireland.ie
Friday July 12: Morton Games, Santry. Events: Men - 100, 400, 800, Morton Mile, 5000, shot. Women- 100H, 200, 800, 1500, high jump, discus. www.mortongames.ie
