The Irish Miler’s Club Le Chéile International took place on Saturday June 16th in windy conditions in Leixlip, with Donore well represented by 11 athletes covering every distance and vintage.

Despite a fierce headwind on the home-straight which hampered athletes chasing times, particularly the sprinters, there were some fantastic races throughout the afternoon.

First up for Donore was Paul McDermott in the ‘A’ 200m, which pitted four Irish athletes against three from the UK, with Paul finishing 4th and first of the Irish in 22.61.

Next up were John Travers and Daragh Fitzgibbon in the ‘A’ 1500m. After a snappy first lap, the chasing pack backed off the pace, with John Travers sitting comfortably in the middle of the leading athletes for most of the race before moving onto the shoulder of leader Rory Chesser with 500m to go. From that point, the result never looked in doubt as John eased away from the rest of the field from 300m out to finish in 3:49.61 with Letterkenny AC’s Danny Mooney finishing 2nd in 3:51.41. Daragh Fitzgibbon finished 13th in 4:01.94, after navigating a fallen athlete on the last lap, in what was a frustrating race for those looking for a fast time.

The wind also made pace judgement a huge factor in the 3000m, with a large field of 20 athletes battling the conditions, including Donore’s Ray Hynes. After a solid first k for Ray, the field slowly scattered over the 2nd half of the race. Ray kept in touch with the 2nd chasing group taking the wind for much of the last 1200m, finishing 11th in 8:49.20.

Sprinters at two ends of the age categories were up next, with the evergreen Sean O’Broin clocking 13.43 into a headwind in the 100m B, before Jack Raftery stepped up in the 400m ‘B’, chasing a European U18 qualifying time of 49.0s. Jack judged his pacing well with a strong 2nd half of the race to finish 4th in a time of 50.20.

The first of the 800s saw three Donore athletes up against each other in the 800m ‘E’ race. David Campbell made an aggressive start leading the race for the first 600m, before dropping back in the final quarter, finishing 6th in 2:08.39. Emmet Ó Briain held back from the early pace, using the following wind on the back straight between 400m and 600m to move up into 2nd place in the last 60m, but ultimately had to settle for 3rd in 2:05.60, after being pipped by Michael O’Conor of Crusaders on the line. Donal Iremonger ran an even-paced 800m, dropping off the field in the first lap, before taking closer order of things in the 2nd lap, finishing 8th in 2:11.07.

The 2017 Waterhouse Byrne Baird champion Niamh O’Neill represented Donore women in the 1500m ‘A’ race, finishing 11th in 5:04.69, in what was a very hard-paced race at the front given the conditions.

The final Donore athlete of the day was Louis O’Loughlin chasing a 2nd European U18 qualifying time and, under better conditions, a shot at a World U20 qualifier. Despite the wind, and having missed a large part of training recently due to injury, Louis acquitted himself superbly. His coach Gerry Naughton provided this report of the race:
“Louis O’Loughlin followed the pace-maker through the first 400 metres in the Men’s 800m B race. Hitting the bell in 55.5 seconds he defied the fact that he is still just 16-years-old to mix it with some of Ireland’s strongest senior middle-distance athletes. He remained in contention near the front of the field, only to fade in the closing stages having to settle for 3rd place (1.55.24) behind Mark Milner (1.54.00) of Tullamore Harriers.”

Photo credit: Paul Kelly (https://www.flickr.com/photos/paulelwoodkelly/)

Videos of all races are available from the East Down AC YouTube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/user/EastDownAC/videos

A fabulous selection of photos from the day taken by IMC photographer Paul Kelly is available on Flickr: https://www.flickr.com/photos/paulelwoodkelly/sets/72157668182040837