HIGHLIGHTS Combined events, national league, Track and Field Live and Meet and Train Cross country
Track and Field LIve NIA 18 January
5 Donore athletes (juvenile, senior and Masters) competed in the latest meet in the increasingly popular indoor series. Liam Morris won his U16 800m in style in 2.06.38 – there were 12 competitors in the race. There were 3 women’s 400m races and juvenile Isabella Jackson was 2nd in race 2 in 69.19.
It was good to see club secretary Donal Iremonger back on the track after an injury break. He finished in his 800m race in 2.14.73. In race 2, Emmet O’Briain, already impressive in the Masters cross country a few weeks ago came 8th in 2.09.95. Simon O’toole made his indoor debut in the mile and ran 5.06
National Indoor combined events
A trio of our young athletes competed at the National indoor Combined Events championships in the Athlone Arena. Oisin Cummins Weiss (Youth men heptathlon), Luke Hanly (Junior men heptathlon) , Ruby Blake (girls U14 pentathlon). Coach Ray O’Keeffe congratulated the athletes “who acquitted themselves very well in Athlone. Ruby, Oisin & Luke all competed and showed their immense improvement under all disciplines of track & field. Ruby Blake finished 5th overall in a huge field, breaking 2000 points in the process. The boys were in with national competitors and posted PBs in a few events” This was an impressive showing from a potential new generation of multi eventers!
National Indoor League Round 2
On Sunday in the Athlone arena, our men’s and women’s teams competed in the second round of the national indoor league. It was always going to be a big ask for the women’s team to qualify given the exceptionally stiff competition this year and some key people injured but valuable experience was gained in the round.
The women contested several events on the day except the hurdles, high jump and relay. Eden Brangan got 7 points in the 1500m (5.25.03) Caoimhe Mackey 9 points in the 400m (62.27) , league stalwart Anne Gormley in the 1500m walk got 10 points (10.58.03) Eimear Finn 5 points in the triple jump (8.07 metres) Faith Hopkins 10 points in the WFD (4.47 metres). Their combined score brought them to 12th overall so not to the final this time but hopefully building on this for the summer league.
In the men’s contest, the team finished 6th out of 10, again missing some key people and having to skip the 60m hurdles and a DQ in the walk but still making the final. This was helped by top marks 11 points for Niall Allen in the WFD (6.16m) , Gavin Curtin in second place in the 1500m in a time of 3.58 (9 points) Michael McCarthy 2nd in the triple jump reaching 11.87m (9 points). The 4×200 relay team of David Campbell, Alex Leonard, Simon Ayres and Paul McDermott went in the 2nd of 2 races and gained 7 points in the 4th fastest time – 1.32.72. Daniel Hernon amassed 7 points in the High Jump with a leap of 1.65m. Darragh McAuley aced 5 points in the 400m in 51.82.
The team has reached the final which takes place on 11 February, great work by the coaches, captains and athletes to get the teams together and thanks to the supporters who travelled.
Vanderbilt Invitational indoor meet Nashville Tennessee
Meanwhile Louis O’Loughlin had a busy two days competing for Auburn college at the Vanderbilt indoor invitational meet in Nashville Tennessee. He was part of the distance medley relay race on a 4 man team, Louis was 3rd in the relay order handing over to final runner Ryan Kinnane, and helping Auburn win the race in a combined time of 9.44.26. This is the 4th best time in the NCAA right now so an impressive showing! Louis was back the next night to compete in the men’s mile, his first time to do this event and he ran an impressive 4.05.08, a PB and 9th fastest of the 55 runners who contested mile races that evening
Meet and Train
Round 2 of the women’s Meet and Train cross country league took place on Sunday 22nd in Tymon Park. The league had only secured the venue with days to go so there was relief on the part of the clubs that the race took place , and the women had a testing workout incorporating a lap similar to that seen for the novice and intermediate cross country races in late 2022. We had 8 runners competing in the 126-strong field with Amy Moriarty 11th, Suzie Henley Willis 23rd, Suzanne Kenny 36th, Sarah Ni Ruairc 84th, Catherine McKeon 105th Michelle Dawson 110th and amazing 84 year old Ann Woolock 119th, unfortunately Louise Kelly was forced to retire from the race. There was some great support on the day too, well done everyone , roll on round 3.
An excellent gallery of photos here from Lindie Naughton
Parkruns
Brickfields
Ciaran McCarthy 29.57
Shiofra McCarthy 35.33
Bushy
157th Tom Halton 34.45
Castletown
73rd (10th female) Joan McTernan 27,28
Coole
3rd Alasdair Brown 17.45
Corkagh
78th (9th female) Nicola Dowdall 26.31
Mile End (London)
20th Niall Lynch 19.17
118th Honor Lynch 23.37
New Ross
52nd Liz McCurtain 28.57
53rd Eugene McCurtain 28,58
Porterstown
10th Tom Fagan 22.26
Shanganagh
2nd Eoin Mooney 18.40
Waterstown
1st David McConn 17.48
2nd Dylan McKenna 19.12
6th John Curran 21.49
67th Andrew Maguire 49.20