Tallaght athletes
were in top form at a number of events last weekend. In the Leinster
Indoor Championships in Nenagh Tomas Fitzpatrick transferred his recent
form on the roads to great effect on the indoor track where he not only
retained the 1500m title he won last year, but also claimed the 3,000m
title and silver in the 800, whilst David Somerville took his first
Leinster medal when he secured bronze in the 1500m.
Nearer to home a
large group of athletes contested the Raheny 5 mile Road Race where Sean
Connolly was seeking to record a hatrick of wins, but after a brave
battle throughout the race and despite recording a new PB of 23.54, he
had to settle for the runner up spot behind the National Cross Country
Champion Joe Sweeney, who took control over the last mile to take the
title. Sean led Davy Byrne (15th), Peter Fitzsimons (41st) and Luke
Coleman(42nd) on to the podium to claim the team bronze medals.
Dessie Shorten
was next to finish and he was rewarded with individual bronze in the
O/50 category and he combined with Gerry Woods and Ray Fitzimons to take
bronze in the O/50 Masters. They were followed home by Viv O’ Hanlon,
John Stokes, Irfan Quershi, Pat Kelly, Martin Haddock, Donal Sheridan,
Dave Meehan, Gerard Dore, Niall Meehan and Karl Geraghty who all
finished well up in the field of 1575 recorded finishers.
Sharon tighe was
the first Tallaght lady to cross the line in a time of 32.30 and she
combined with Anna King and Susan Adams to take top team honours in the
Master Ladies category with Peig Dunne following them home with Tara
Woods who did extremely well to finish the course in a time of 36.46 in
her first ever competition, whilst Roisin O’ Hanlon went top of the
podium for the second year in a row in the Junior Women’s category and
Tara Woods did extremely well
