Morton Stadium, Santry hosted all the action in the National Senior Track and Field Championships over the weekend. Day one secured the first of two medals from the championships for Donore. Eamonn Fahey ran 21:95 in the final of the 200m and took the bronze medal. On Saturday John Travers took to the track after securing his spot from Saturday’s heats of the 1500m. The race became a battle of tactics as it slowed down to a pedestrian pace by 200m with no one prepared to go early. Most probably expected Travers to twitch and kick on but he held back until a break was made from 300m out. By 150m out Travers was on the shoulders of Cormac Kelly (St. Abban’s) and Eoin Everard (KCH) and passed Everard in the home straight to clinch his first National outdoor title in a conservative time of 4:01.19. congratulations to both John and Eamonn.

Earlier in the day Eric Keogh, Ray Hynes and Daragh Fitzgibbon competed in the 5,000m final and finished in 5th (14:37.28) and 7th (14:50.76) and 2nd (15:21.30)respectively.

There was a great showing of Donore athletes over both days, a number of them were competing at the National Seniors for the first time, some moving up from the Junior ranks. On Saturday Lynda Ngankam, who recently became a senior, finished 5th in the triple jump with 11.18. Having progressed from Saturday’s heats Caoimhe Mackay placed 7th in the 400m hurdles (1:10.72) and Ailbhe Healy finished 4th in the polevault on count back.

Sinead Lambe who has enjoyed the season at the 800m distance made Sunday’s final with a fastest losers qualification from Saturday. Sinead finished in 8th position in a time of 2:20.13. Unfortunately Karla Doran didn’t qualify from her heat on Day 1 in the 400m. Karla finished 4th in 1:06.53. Similarly David Campbell didn’t progress from his heat when he finished 7th in 53:86. Kenneth Nugent was our sole entrant in the 10,000 which was a straight final on Saturday afternoon and finished 8th in a time of 31:52.22. Sunday morning heats in the Men’s 110m hurdles saw Rolus Olusa through to the afternoon final where he finished in a time of 15:48. Eamonn Fahey also clinched the Men’s B final in 11:17. Well done to all.

Elsewhere, Desmond Gill finished in 20.45 at the Portmarnock 5k with Michelle Rowley coming in at 22.32.  In the SouthEast Michael Barry ran the Waterford Viking Marathon just dipping under the 4 hour mark in 3.59.41.  Sean Browne finished in 1.52.54 in the half marathon event the same day.

Meanwhile Sean Lawlor was competing in Mannheim in Germany over the weekend. Update to follow.