There were two medals for Donore in this year’s National Senior Indoor Championships – the first to be held in the new facility in Abbotstown.

The most exciting finish of the championship involved our own John Travers in a thrilling showdown with St Coca’s Paul Robinson in the 1500m final. Both easily got through their heats the day before and in the final lap, Robinson had edged ahead but was chased down relentlessly by John and it was down to the wire with John getting the win on the line in 3.50.44 from Robinson’s 3.50.55. So congrats John Travers on a new national title! Next up for John is the 1500m at the European Indoor Championships in Belgrade.

In the triple jump there was a super silver medal for Lynda Ngankam who jumped a best of 11.27 in her first jump to clinch the second place. This is a great result for Lynda who was been steadily making waves in this event over the last couple of years, finishing fifth in last year’s senior outdoors, and a senior national medal is a great breakthrough for her – congrats to her and coach Gerry Ronan.

In the 3000m, we had Ray Hynes and Eric Keogh in action but unfortunately Eric had to retire with 800m to go. Ray finished in 10th place in 8.38.55 – good to see him back after a series of injuries.

On day 1 we had competitors in the High Jump, 400m and 800m heats. Lara O’Byrne was one of the youngest competitors and this was good experience for her in senior competition – she cleared 1,45m in a competition won by Sommer Lecky. Adam Halpin and David Campbell were in separate heats in the 400m where only the winner of each heat was guaranteed to make the final – Adam ran 56.07 and has ran faster this year but will be back in action again, David came third in his heat in 52.51. Sinead Lambe was in contention in the 800m heats – it was quite a messy race with 9 runners so the pace moved up and down considerably – she finished in 2.24.24 outside her best but in a very tactical race!

Well done all and thanks to those who came to support both days.

Report by Florence Curley.
Thanks to Brendan Ahearne for picture.