Another sack full of medals from juvenile athletes

Jun 21, 2009 [Noel Guiden] Day 2 of the Dublin Juvenile Championships from Irishtown brought another day of great performances from Clonliffe`s athletes which included Patrick O`Connor completing a sprint double with a superb win in the 200 to add to his 100 from yesterday and a simply superb boys U/19 2,000 steeple chase duel between Clonliffe`s Jamie Rossister and DSD`s Emmet Jennings.

The club`s sprinters were again in fine form particularily in the U/17s where Patrick O`Connor, Stuart Roche and Craig Commiskey all negotiated safe passage through the heats into the afternoon final.In the final itself Patrick was again the victor winning in 22.7 with Stuart 3rd and Craig 5th. Earlier in the day Aaron Tynan moved down in distance from the 800 (which he won) to tackle the U/15 200 and with a good run placed 5th.In the U/16 girls 200 Leah Bergin was 2nd (26.57) with Elaine Begley 4th.

Elaine turned the tables in the long jump winning with a best of 4.67m with Leah 1cm behind in 2nd. In the U/16 boys Mark Moloney finished 3rd with Aaron Wade 4th.Hannah McLoughlin threw very well and was 3rd place in both the shot and javelin. Also in the field events Ryan Whelan won gold in the U/15 javelin and Andy Liadiova won the U/12 shot. Tadgh Brennan was 2nd in the U/14 shot (8.38).

The middle distance athletes also did the club proud. Ian Guiden was 2nd in the U/16 1500 (4.44) with Ryan Cashel 5th, Liam Ashton was 3rd in the U/15s (4.50) with John Buckley 5th. Rachel Murray ran very well in the U/14s and was a matter of inches away from a medal in 4th with Alex Philbin 6th. Also in the 1500m Graham Mahon was 2nd in the U/18 and Jordan Logue 3rd in the U/19.

On then to the race of the day and round 2 of the Emmet/Jamie battle and what a race these two fine athletes provided over the barriers for 2,000m, neck and neck they ran and over the last 500 Jamie hit the front, however Emmet Jennings dug in and with a last gasp sprint cleared the final barrier to win almost on the line by .2 of a second. PB`s for both and a time that would have won the All Ireland schools. Jamie Rossister in taking silver took about 15 seconds off his PB running 6.08. Conor McGuinness also ran very well taking 3rd place.

An excellent end to an excellent championship. Athletes take a bow