Over the past few weeks our athletes committed
themselves extremely well in a number of major competitions at National
and International level, with both Brian Gregan and Conor Murray topping
the podium in the recent National U23 and juvenile T&F Championships
respectively.
In the National U23 Championships Brian Gregan produced a new P.B. of
21.58 when winning the 200m on the back of a great run at an
International meet in Belgium, where he won the 400m contest in an
impressive time of 46.85, and he followed this with a win at the Cork
City Invitational meet where he again took some notable scalps when
storming to victory in the 400m in 47.02. After these super runs his
prospects of making the podium in last weeks European U23 Championships
were very bright, but this was not realised after he suffered a
hamstring injury after 90m in the opening heats, which unfortunately
forced him to retire from these championships. However, as in the past,
he will bounce back stronger than ever from what hopefully will only be
short spell of injury.
In the National Juvenile Championships in Tullamore, Conor Murray ran a
very mature tactical race in the U14 800m. Positioning himself to the
fore from the start, he was always conscious and aware of his rivals and
the space around him, as demonstrated when he moved clear of bunching at
the 300m and as the race pace increased on the second lap he moved up on
the shoulders of the two leaders , passing one on the back straight on
the final lap and with 110m remaining he took the lead which he held
until the line to claim the title, despite a spirited charge from the
young athlete from the Dooneen A.C. in Limerick. His time of 1.14.4
exceeded his previous personal best by almost 5 seconds.
In the same championships Ciaran Mackey
produced a new P.B. when winning bronze in the U19 400m in a time of
50.94 and just missed out on the same colour by .10 of a second when
finishing 4th in the 200m final in a time of 23.31 Although John Daly
(U15 800m & 1500m), Evan Flynn (U13 600m), Rosin O’ Hanlon (3,00m &
1500m) and Sean Fitzpatrick (800m & 1500m) did not reach the podium they
all competed well in their finals , with John producing a new P.B. of
1.14.33 for the 800m and Evan 1.44.4 for the 600m.
Elsewhere Sean Connolly finished a creditable 3rd in the 3,000m
(8.02.67) in Cork behind the Australian winner David Mc Neill and the
Kenyan runner up Linus Chumba and Tomas Fitzpatrick improved on his
previous best time for the 1500m when clocking 3.48.7 at the same meet.
Both also assisted the club team progress to the Final of the National
League after the some great performances in the second round at Santry
recently.
August will undoubtedly be an exciting month with many of our athletes
hoping to do well in National Senior & Masters Championships and the
Final of the National League.
