Last week was a great week for the club on a
number of fronts with both juvenile and senior athletes returning from
competition with plenty of silverware.
Santry was the venue for the Dublin Juvenile Championships where our
juveniles accumulated 10 gold, 5 silver and 7 bronze.
Aisling Johnston was in top form, winning five titles. Her gold medal
haul started on the Friday evening when she won the U16 800m with more
than 30 metres to spare over her nearest rival and had almost the same
winning margin to spare when winning the 1500m the next day, when she
also added a third gold in the shot putt contest. On the third and final
day of these championships her winning streak continued, with gold in
both the javelin and long jump where she beat her p.b. in each of three
consecutive jumps, setting a new mark of 4m. 96 to beat her previous
best by more than 60cm.
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Aisling contesting the 800m
(photo – Alan Cowzer)
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There were more fine performances from some of
the other Tallaght competitors, most notably Anthony Lieghio who took a
number of significant scalps when storming to victory in the U18 1500m,
recording a new p.b. of 4.11 in the process, whilst Brian Connolly did
likewise in the U16 3,000m where he also took gold, recording a good
time of 9.45, in his first race over this distance. Other gold medalists
were Emma Prior in the U14 walk who also won silver in the high jump,
Jade Johnston in the U11 ball throw event and Jonathan Fleet in the U12
high jump who beat silver medalist, club colleague Killian Morris on
count-back.
Laura Finlay stepped on to the podium in the U18 300m and 200m to
receive bronze and silver respectively and Rebecca Game won bronze in
the U16 800m on the first day and silver in the 200m on Saturday.
Annmarie Mc Clean was another who recorded a new p.b when she took the
bronze in the U14 long jump, and she went a place better when taking
silver in her first ever javelin competition where Zara Gaynor, also
competing in her first javelin competition took bronze for the club.
Ciara Henry added two more medals to the haul when winning bronze in
both the U13 long jump and ball throw events, whilst Sean Fitzsimons
took bronze in his first ever discus competition at U14 degree.
Karl Edgeworth can only improve for the experience, after finishing 4th
in the U18 800m, his first ever race at this level, behind some good
talented athletes, and both Peter Fitzsimons (U17 3k) and Niall
Forrester U16 3k, should be more than pleased with their new p.b’s.
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U17 girls relay bronze medalists
– Rebecca, Carla, Aoibheann & Aisling (photo Alan Cowzer)
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Our medalists will go on to contest the
National Juvenile Championships in Tullamore & Cork in July.
Elsewhere there was more success for the club, with Robert Fitzsimons
recording a new p.b of 4.05 when winning a 1500m race at the Irish
Milers Club meet in Irishtown on Saturday last where Ronan Kearns also
ran a 1500m, finishing 2nd in a new pb of 3.59, on the back of his 5th
placing in the 800m at the British Miler s Club meet in Watford the
previous week where he again recorded a new p.b. of 1.57.65.
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Ronan Kearns |
Robert
Fitzsimons |
On top of these performances there were some
other great results on Wednesday evening last, with our seniors adding
more silverware for the trophy cabinet, most notably Davy Byrne who won
the BHAA beach race, with both Niall Coppinger and Derek Quinn finishing
second in their age categories. On the same evening in the Phoenix Park,
Catherina Baldinger beat the favourite in the field of 200 runners, when
she crossed the line in first place after completing a run of 1.7 miles
followed by 5 laps of the same distance on the bike and finishing with
another run of 1.7 miles to win the Wheelworx Duathlon. Sean Walsh also
competed and did very well in his first duathlon.
Davy Byrne again led the men’s team, Nilton Demorez, Desie Shorten,
James Crowley and Alan Lawlor to victory and the perpetual team trophy
in the 27th running of the Dunshaughlin 10k road race on Saturday
evening last where Davy also took the prize for his 3rd placing in the
individual category. Our only female representative in the race, Aileen
Connolly showed significant improvement when recording a new p.b. for
the distance.
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James Crowley, Desie Shorten,
Nilton Demorez & Davy Byrne |