Clonliffe Harriers club Track and Field Championships took place in a windswept Morton Stadium yesterday. Highlights included some excellent performances from the huge number of juvenile athletes taking part and a cracking 800 metre race won by Jayme Rossiter.
As always with the club championships proceedings got underway with the tiny tots race and then headed into the juvenile programme proper with over 30 titles up for grabs. In the U/10 boys Gavin O’Brien made it a clean sweep taking gold in everything – 60m, 300m, ball throw and long jump and needed a strong neck to carry home all those medals around his neck. Jordan Broy was almost as successful in the U/12 age group winning the 80m, 500m and long jump. In the U/14 boys age group there was a more even spread of honours, Joseph Hession was an impressive winner of the 100m and 800m in particular whilst Keelan Twomey did a jumps double in the high and long jump. Cathal Doyle impressed in the U/16 1000m from Adam O’Brien with Sean Carrig just on his shoulder. In the long jump Sean Carrig reversed the placings with Brian Flanagan 3rd and then in the high jump Adam O’Brien was first with Cathal Doyle second.
In the girls championships Aoife Hession was dominant on the track winning both the 60m and 300m, Hope Sumola showed that she has a good turn of speed finishing second in the U/12 80 metres and of course, as would be expected, winning the 500m. In the U/14 age group 100m Amy Connolly was first with Ruth Bergin 2nd and Caoimhe Reilly 3rd and in the distance race Ruth Bergin was first from Lauren Carr and Cliona Cooley. Ella Cooley was very good in the technical events winning both the U/10 ball throw and U/10 long jump. In the U/16 age group Kate Hession after her Friday night league success was crowned U/16 100m champion. There was a great race in the 1000m where Laura Tuite came home first ahead of Sally Aherne and Alanna Cooley.
The conditions had not improved at all by the time the senior championships started with high winds really interfering badly with the pole vault competition which really turned into a ‘non event’ and was won by Ian Rogers with a best of 4m from high-jumper Andrew Heaney 2.4m (it was unclear whether Andrew availed of the pole for this particular jump).
There was much interest in the 400m as it was to be Kris Valters first home race, unfortunately there were only two in the race but Chris was an impressive winner in 51 seconds dead especially considering that the final 100 was ran into a gale force wind. There were two good 800m races. The men’s 800 featured a gripping battle between Jayme Rossiter and guest Jake McDonnell of Raheny Shamrocks with the Clonliffe man grimly holding on to his lead to win by a margin of maybe half an inch in a time of 1.57, a good run also by Aaron Hanlon who was second in the Clonliffe championships with a PB of 1.58.3 and Liam Ashton making a welcome return to action after illness running 2.08.
In the women’s 800 Lorna Begley was the winner in a time of 2.24.6 a winning margin of 0.4 over Orna McGinley with Roisin Leahy third.
Larry Brady was a very comfortable winner of the men’s 3000 in a time of 9.52 from Niall Sherlock 10.19.4 and Johnny Bradley-Ward 10.32.8. In the Masters category Phillip Doherty was the winner in a time of 10.32.8 from Tom Monks and Colm Breen.
In the field events Megan Coomber won the long jump with a best of 5 metres from Shauna Reilly and Leah Bergin whilst in the men’s long jump Daniel Doran won with 5.20 from high jumpers Liam Conway and Andrew Heaney.
In the high jump Andrew Heaney was the winner with a best of 1.85 from Liam Conway and Ian Rogers (minus the pole vault) 3rd.
In summary from a juvenile perspective the championships were extremely successful with all of the Clonliffe juveniles, our guests from Skerries A.C. and parents and friends thoroughly enjoying the day. Having said that, however, it must be said that the turnout for the senior championships was a source of considerable disappointment. Maybe the senior championships require a rethink?
Results 2012 Clonliffe club championships:
To view the results of the Club T&F Championships please click on the link below.
Club T&F Championships 130512 Results
Gallery:
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