Brilliant Clonliffe Night of Miles

It was another brilliant Clonliffe Harriers club night in Morton Stadium tonight as the club marked the 62nd anniversary of Herb Elliott’s 1958 world mile record in Santry with the Clonliffe Night of Miles. The event was extremely well supported by the club’s athletes with some one hundred or thereabouts taking part over the series of mile races which kicked off at 8 PM sharp with the girls U/15 mile, a great performance by the young ladies most, due to the impact of Covid 19 running their first race since the Dublin indoors last February. Sorcha O’Connor was a fine winner in a time of 6.21.0 ahead of Rebecca Walsh only a fraction behind in second place (6.22.3). As expected U/14 national cross country champion Sean Cronin won the boys U/15 mile with a gun to tape win in a time of sub five, Sean breasting the tape in 4.57.5. In the battle for 2nd Lorcan Benjacar prevailed in a time of 5.31.4.

Next up was the women’s B race and it was a cracker with Laura Kernan and Eimer Griffin running side-by-side battling for victory and it was only down the home straight that Laura went clear to win a time of 6.05.7 with Eimer second in 6.01.1, third place was Emma Byrne (6.26.9).

Adrein Gerard was a clear winner in the men’s D race in a time of 5.54.1. The C race provided another intriguing battle as Philip O’Doherty tried desperately to shake Clive Ahern from his shoulder however on the back straight Clive made his move quickly opening a gap to win in 5.12.4 with Philip second 5.18.3. These two well clear of a great battle for the line in which Steve Barnes just got his nose in front of Josh Scully. Likewise the men’s B race provided great entertainment, Dermot Buckley led out the pack with John Donlon on his tail, John used this as a springboard to stretch away from the field to take a clear win in a time of 4.44.0 from Eoin Housley second Niall Sherlock 3rd.

Then possibly the race of the night, the women’s A race, an intriguing three way battle at the front led out by Laura Tuite who kept up a pretty relentless pace from the gun with Alannah Cooley and Sarah Bateson for company. At 400 to go Laura still held the lead but Sarah was right on her shoulder as these two opened a slight gap on Alannah, , the battle continued down the back straight and was only decided down the home straight as Sarah put in her best performance of the season to take an excellent win in 5.16.9, a fraction off her PB with Laura recording a mile PB of 5.18.4.

The final race of the night again saw a great battle, Eoin Taggart took up the running with from 1000 out as he opened the gap on the chasing pack, Ben Guiden and Jafar battled away with Ben hitting second place at the top bend of the last lap and chasing Eoin all the way down the home straight, the gap however was too much as Eoin took the win in 4.23.2 with Ben in second place in a PB of 4.25.7 and Jafar 4.26.7 in third place. Good also to see Sean Doran back racing after a period of injury and running almost pain free. That brought the curtain down on 60 minutes of non-stop action in a great club atmosphere. A huge thank you once again to all the officials who made the night possible. On Thursday of next week, August 13, there will be another club event featuring 200, 800 and 5000 (more details over the weekend)

Results from Night of Miles:

Photos: https://flic.kr/s/aHsmPSieYY