Three places and four athletes with the qualifying time! The National 1500m final was to be the race of truth to assist the selection process. Paul Robinson (St. Coca’s AC), Ciaran O’Lionaird (Leevale AC), David McCarthy (West Waterford) and our own John Travers would do battle to impress the selectors for a place on the Irish team at the forthcoming European Athletics Championships in Zurich.
This blue-riband race proved to be one of the highlights of the National Track & Field championships held at Santry on the 19th and 20th July 2014. Defending champion Eoin Everard (Kilknny City Harriers) and Robinson took the early pace leading the field through 400m in 68 seconds and the 800m mark in 2.06. Meanwhile Travers had made a conservative start being 11th at the 300m before gaining to 3rd at 1100m (2.50). It could be argued that he was running a fine tactical race because in the middle of the back straight he was running in second place on the shoulder of the race leader Robinson. At this stage O’Lionaird put in a big effort and pushed towards the front whilst Travers seemed to lose his focus. On the top of the bend John’s chances of being on the flight to Zurich seemed lost as both McCarthy and a rejuvenated Everard brushed past. He lay fifth coming into the home straight.
With 70 metres to go O’Lionaird (3.43.85) was holding off the final challenge from Robinson (3.44.16), but Travers found another gear to kick past Everard (5th) and then McCarthy (4th in 3.45.64) to gain that all important bronze position in a time of 3.45.00. John has subsequently being named on the Irish team to compete at the European Championships at Zurich.
Eric Keogh was also in the field of 12 finalists, having qualified as a fastest loser on the previous day with a run of 3.55.86. Eric certainly deserved his place among the elite and showed enormous progress and potential with his efforts. He ran in 10th position for most of the final running at the close behind the main bunch. He reached the bell in 2.52, but found the last lap tough going as he struggled home 11th in 3.55.02.
Eamonn Fahey also had an eventful afternoon. Having finished a frustrating 4th in his specialist event the Long Jump (6.84m) he lined up to compete in the second of five 100m Semi Finals. With only the winners guaranteed of a place in the final Eamonn had his work cut out. But he was fast out of the blocks and went on to win in a fabulous 10.85s. The field of 10 finalists was whittled down to 7 following 3 false starts that eliminated two of the big guns: David Hynes and Jonathan Browning. “We were all nervous and I just wanted to be extra careful out of the blocks” admitted Eamonn later. Despite the hesitant start Eamonn quickly got up to 3rd place (10.99) and maintained his form through the finish line to win the bronze medal behind surprise winner Jamie Davis (10.90) from Raheny Shamrocks.
The final hour of competition saw Donore Harriers win 3 bronze medals. Added to those won by Travers and Fahey add the name Jaco Oosthuysen in the Javelin. Jaco threw consistently well throughout the competition recording a best of 57.37m. The event was won by Rory Gunning of Fr. Murphy’s AC in 59.22m with Shane Aston of Trim AC second with 57.53m.
Donore’s other competitor on the second day of competition was Ray Hynes in the 3000m Steeplechase. Ray had gained from 9th to 6th between the first and third laps and seemed to be going well. He passed through the 1500m point in 4.31, but landed awkwardly into the water jump and then took the precautionary decision to withdraw from the race.
The Men’s 10.000m was the club’s main focus on the first day of competition with 4 Donore athletes in a field of 21. The first Harrier home was Lee Van Haeften (31.25.67) PB in 7th place. Lee was 10th at the halfway mark passing the 5k point in 15.27. Next came Mark Dooley (32.43.21) PB in 13th (15th at 5k in 15.48). Two places further back was Michael McMahon (32.57.16). This was a very impressive run by McMahon who only took up running last autumn. After a hesitant opening few laps he passed the half-way point in 16.28 lying in 19th place and then ran consistent laps over the second part of the race to gain to 15th. Michael improved his PB time by massive 64 seconds. John Dunne M35 (33.29.16) had a marginal PB when finishing in 16th spot. Dunne was 20th at 5000m in 16.31.
The 10.000m race incorporated a team competition based on cumulative times and Van Haeften, Dooley and McMahon won the bronze medal behind winners Clonliffe Harriers.
David Campbell competed in the 400m, but was eliminated in the first of 4 Semi-Finals when he recorded a 6th place in 52.57
The IMRA Sugar Bowl mountain race (16/7/14) was contested by Niall Lynch M40 who finished 5th in 32.28, just 3 seconds shy of second spot.
Other results: –
Parkrun Griffeen Park (19/7/14): 1st Gavin Keogh (16.44); 20th Tom Fagan M45 (20.46)
Fingal 10km (20/7/14): 11th Niall Lynch M40 (33.54) first in age category; 13th Ken Norgrove M45 (34.16) first in age category; 27th Will Morris M35 (35.24); 265th Fred English (42.06); 442nd Eoin Daltun (44.14). For the ladies we had Anne Curley 6th overall (38.34), Florence Curley 10th overall (39.35), Grace Kennedy (41.16), Nicola Dowdall (46.04), Caren Crowley (46.58) and Hilary O’Connor (54.46)
In the Raphoe 5k, congratulations to Maura Kearns who was first lady home and in the BHAA DCC 5K well done to Joe Murphy (19.32), Janette Strickland (21.30), Alma Hanevy (21.31) and Ann Woodlock (28.08)
Congratulations also to Conor McCauley who continued his recent run of from to finish 2nd in the Killarney Half Marathon (76.19)