Our Athletes were in top form in the
Dublin Juvenile Championships, National League and International
competitions in the past few weeks, with many outstanding individual
and team performances.
In Slovakia, both Sean Connolly and Brian Gregan helped Ireland to
second place overall and promotion to Premier division of the 2010
European Team Championships.
After the late withdrawal of David Gillick, Brian Gregan had to step
up to run the 400m, and he showed he was recovering well from a recent
injury when he secured valuable points for team Ireland with a third
placed finish, clocking 47.01, behind Croatia’s Zeliko Viacek and the
Austrian winner, Clemens Zeller. Brian also helped the Irish team
secure additional points after they finished fourth in the 4X400m
relay.
After running a P.B. in the 5k at the BMC meet in Watford the previous
Saturday and winning the Division 1, 5k the following day in Antrim in
the 1st round of the AAI National T&F league at Antrim, Sean Connolly
had another fantastic run in his inaugural outing for his Country in
the 3,000m, where he battled with Austrian Georg Mlynek in a sprint to
the line, only to be beaten by the slimmest of margins (.71) in a time
of 8.21.71.
Elsewhere, our juveniles were in action for the second weekend in
succession in the Dublin Juvenile Track & Field Championships and our
senior men were in action in Antrim in the 1st round of the National
T&F League.
Elliot Meehan and Seamus Noone took the bronze medals with their
combined jumps in the U10 team event, whilst Nadine Johnston Hickey
recorded the fastest individual time for the U10 500m and threw the
furthest in the ball throw competition, and her throw combined with
Alanna Walsh's throw secured the team gold medals for Tallaght.
Karl Graham and Chris Duffy both
contested the U10 500m and their combined finishing times were enough
to secure the bronze medals.
At U11 degree, Nicole Fullam had the longest throw of the competition
and coupled that the throw of Rebecca Casey, secured the 2nd gold
medal for Tallaght. They also joined up to contest the 600m team event
where they secured the bronze medals with the 3rd fastest combined
times.
In the relay events the Tallaght U15 4x100m team of John Daly, Keith
Doherty, Sean Mc Cabe and Conor Murray teamed up to take the title,
but the U13 team of Sean Keane, Ronan Mc Enaney, Alberto and Eoin
Dohery just missed out on the medals, after finishing 4th in their
4x100m contest.
After some great results in the team events at U10 & U11 and the
relay’s at Santry our juveniles again did well in the individual
Championships at Irishtown, where between them they secured 7 gold, 8
silver and 7 bronze medals.
Ciaran Mackey went top of the podium on two occasions after two
spirited runs in the U19 200 and 400m, whilst Sean Fitzpatrick won
gold in the U19 800m and 4th in the 1500m.
At U18 degree, Roisin O’ Hanlon took silver in the 3,000m and bronze
in the 1500m with Zara Gaynor taking the Javelin title and bronze in
the long jump. Sean Fitzsimons added another silver after he finished
second in the U17 3,000m and both Frankie Walsh and Noel O’ Reilly had
good runs in their 800m contests, as did Niall Meehan in the U18
3,000m.
Keith Doherty secured another gold in the U15 100m and in the same age
group John Daly had two great runs, winning silver in both the 800m &
1500m contests, clocking new P.B’s in both, whilst Heather Meehan just
missed out on the medals after finishing 4th in the U15 200m.
Conor Murray’s performances could only be described as outstanding,
after he bagged 9 medals from ten contests, at U14 degree, only losing
out in the long jump where he finished fourth. In the track events he
won 800m gold, 1500m silver, 80m hurdles silver and bronze in both the
80m and 200m sprints, whilst in the field events he secured silver in
the Javelin & high jump and bronze in both the discus and shot putt
competitions, to add to the relay team gold he helped secure in the
U15 4x100m the previous week. In the same age group, Jade Johnston
made up for the disappointment in the 800m and 1500m where she
finished 5th in both, when she took gold in the javelin.
At U13 degree, Evan Flynn, despite being winded, after sustaining a
bang to the stomach in the earlier part of his race bravely ran on to
take bronze in the 600m and Eoin Doherty secured silver in the 80m
final in the same age group, whilst Roan Mc Eneaney was another who
ran well in the U12 600m final.
At Antrim in round 1 of the National T&F League, there were some great
individual and team performances which helped Tallaght take 4th place
overall. Considering, Anthony Lieghio, Thomas Fitzpatrick and Sean
Connolly had all run the previous day in the BMC meet in Watford where
the trio ran PB’s in the 800m (1.51.6), 1500m (3.51.6) and 5,000m
(13.55.9) respectively, their commitment to the club and resolve to
help the team progress to the next round was unquestionable, with all
three securing maximum points with wins in the 800m, 1500m and 5,000m.
Further points were secured in the track events by Derek Kennedy in
the 100m, Sean Bolger in the 200m, Ciaran Mackey in the 400m, Sean
Morris in the 110m hurdles, David Somerville in the 3k steeple chase
and Sean Fitzpatrick in the walk, whilst John Kelly, Ciaran Mackey,
Sean Bolger and Anthony Lieghio combined to take 2nd in the 4X400m
relay and Derek Kennedy, Sherif Obajamie, Ciaran Mackey and Sean
Bolger combined to take 3rd in the 4X100m contest.
In the field events, Sean Morris stepped up to secure additional
points in the javelin & discus, whilst Tim O’Connor added more in the
long jump, Anthony Lieghio in the high jump, whilst Sherif secured
valuable points in both the shot putt and hammer contests.
The team will contest the 2nd round on Sunday 5th July in Dublin,
where they will be combine with some more athletes who were not
available in the 1st round to secure enough points to progress to the
Final in August, whilst our juvenile medal winners will be looking
forward to the National Championships in July.
