John Fagan’s new club record over the 400m hurdles was significant on several levels. His time of 52.58 secs is very good for a 21 year old and is in fact only 0.38 secs off the latest European U23 qualifying standard which augurs well for next years championships. Obviously much can change between here and then but now its a realistic target. It also ranks John as 20th fastest Irishman ever over 400m hurdles and probably more importantly plants him as the fastest Clonliffe man ever. It was a pleasure to watch the race in its entirety by looking at his backside as he gradually pulled away from me!
The race itself was a cracker with Fagan going out hard. He led to hurdle 6 and with Patrick Maher of Leevale pushing hard on the inside, Fagan made another push into the home straight. Both were level to the last but Fagan come off it badly and lost momentum which Maher capitalised on to pull away and win in a new Irish Junior Record of 52.14, taking the 29 year old record of Ciaran McDunphy out of the record books. Fagan’s next outing will be the intervarsity championships on home turf next weekend.
Also running today was Sarah Woods in the 400m hurdles. Sarah finished 2nd behind Megan Kiely of Ferrybank. Unfortunately there are no official times for Sarah’s race but hand times suggest it was close to her personal best. We will update when we get a confirmation. Sarah will also be competing in the Varsities next weekend.