Championship Successes for Tallaght Athletes

Last weekend proved to be a very successful weekend for Tallaght juvenile athletes when they competed over the course of 3 days in the Dublin Juvenile Track & Field Championships at Morton Stadium Santry, where the young athletes made the podium on no less than 34 occasions and returned home with 14 Titles, 14 Silver and 6 Bronze Medals between them and qualification for the Nationals in July.

Keith Doherty topped the podium on three occasions after he won the U17 100m in 11.3 ahead of the silver medallist, club mate Sean Mc Cabe (12.00), the 200m in 23.2 and long jump contest where he again left the Silver to Sean who earlier achieved another P.B by just over 5 seconds when winning the 1500m title in less than ideal conditions with a time of 4.23.4 to add to the silver he won in the 800m (2.09.1), whilst Killian Morris picked up silver in both the High jump where he cleared 1.75m and in the 300m hurdles after crossing the line in 43.2.  At U18 degree Aaron Mc Donagh won silver in the 400m and Philip Murray did likewise in the javelin and ran well in both the 800m and 1500m finals.

At U16 degree Conor Murray ran a new outdoors P.B. for the 800m when winning in a time of 2.08.4 and he added silver in the 1500m (4.41.1), Discus and Javelin and bronze in the 100m (11.9), 200m, Shot Putt and Javelin and finished 5th in the high jump. In the same age group Jade Johnston took bronze in the 800m and Silver in the Javelin, but unfortunately had to retire half way through her 1500m final after she suffered a fall.

There was a clean sweep for Tallaght in the U15 100m sprint after Joseph Ojuemi took the title with a time of 11.7, just ahead of silver medallist Epey Muntanga (11.8) with Eoin Doherty taking the bronze in 12.3 and the trio almost did the same in the 200m when Joseph took his second title in 23.4 just ahead of Epey 23.6 with Eoin just missing out on the medals when crossing the line in 25.00. Eoin later took a second silver medal in the long jump.

Tallaght athletes almost made it another clean sweep in the U14 800m after Mustaffe Nasir who was competing in his first ever championships had a clear cut victory (2.17.2) over fellow debutante and clubmate Sam Morrison (2.22.4) who took the Silver with Sean Flanagan (2.27.2) just missing out on the medals in 4th after suffering a similar fate in his 80m sprint. Mustaffe went on to take his second title when winning the 1500m with ease in 4.50.7, almost 7 seconds clear of his nearest rival.

In the girls equivalent age group Kayleigh Clarke took both the long jump and javelin titles and finished 4th and 5th in the 200m and 800m respectively whilst Aloisa King took the 2,000m walk title, and although Erin O’ Connor didn’t make the podium she ran well in the 80m sprint and jumped well in the high jump in the same age category.

Cathal Dervan was anther to top the podium after he sprinted past his rivals in the last 50m of the U13 600m final to win another title for the club with a time of 1.45.2. His sister Grace finished 4th in the U12 600m as did Christopher Duffy in the boys equivalent whilst Nadine Johnston Hickey finished 6th in both the 600m and high jump and Alana Walsh also ran well in the 600m and did good in the shot putt in the same age group.

Karl Graham was another to have a good run in the boys U11 600m, as did Eve Keegan who came through the semis to finish 5th in the girls equivalent whilst Tori O’ Brien did well in her first championship outing.

At U10 degree Yan Aengus Geraghty made the podium after he took the Bronze in the 500m and was followed home by Eoin Mc Evoy who ran well, whilst Faye Dervan finished 5th ahead of Lauryn Mc Dermott, Sophia Kourrini and Abi O’ Neill who all ran well in their 500m final.

Elsewhere on the same day our senior athletes travelled to Sligo where they competed in the first round of the Division 1 National T&F League and despite continuous downpours which made conditions difficult for athletes they accumulated sufficient points between them to proceed to round 2 in a few weeks time with a 5 point lead. On the day both Anthony Lieghio 1500m Tomas Fitzpatrick secured maximum points with wins in the 1500m and 3,000m respectively, whilst Artjom Kutjavin and Patrick both finished second in the 800m and 400m hurdles. There were other sound performances from Daniel Kilgallan in the 100m, Sean Morris in the 200m, Eddie Healy 400m and Michael Kaswoski in the shot putt.

Anthony Lieghio, Patrick Curran, Artjom Kutjavin and Eddie Healy combined well to take top points in the 4X400m relay, whilst Daniel Kilgallan, Derek Kennedy, Eddie Healy and Sean Morris did very well to take second spot in the 4X100m relay.

A week earlier on Joseph Ojewumi won the Junior 100m and took silver in the 200m at the National Schools T&F Championships where Keith Doherty finished 4th and 6th in the Inter 100m and 200m finals and Sean Mc Cabe finished 7th in the 1500m Steeple Chase whilst at the same venue Tomas Fitzpatrick ran 3.52.9 when finishing 12th in the Irish Milers Club contest.

Also in Tullamore on Sunday the Leinster Masters Track and Field Championships were held and Desie Shorten took home two medals after he finished 2nd O/50 in the 100m in 14.38 and 3rd O/50 200m in 29.46 and on the bank holiday Monday, Peig Dunne, Paula Murray, Deidre Pitts, Eileen Martin, Grainne Coogan, Audrey Daly and others competed well in the Dublin Women’s Mini Marathon whilst Shay Murphy ran the Cork Marathon in 3.32.

Prior to that the Tallaght Ladies “A” team finished 2nd overall in the Meet & Train League and the “B” team were first overall in the Bronze Division.

Our juveniles will again be competing in the Dublin Juvenile Relay Championships on the Tallaght Track on this Friday evening 17th June and the following week the 24th June where they undoubtely will add more titles and qualification for Nationals.