Apr 29, 2008 [Noel Guiden] Our juvenile athletes brief tour to the Isle of Man over the course of the weekend proved to be an outstanding success all round. A group of seventeen of our athletes aged between 13 and 17, in the safe hands of Gladys, Marian, Mick and Gerry set out bright and early for Saturday morning’s short flight to the Isle of Man and arrived in wet and cold downtown Douglas. After checking into our salubrious hotel situated on the promenade a group of us set out on the first of the weekend challenges – the Douglas Five Mile Hill Run where, despite the best efforts of the older heads Mark McKenzie, Jordan Logue and Ian Guiden couldn’t be held back and on the long downhill stretch they were joined by Jack Fay and Graham Mahon with Graham and Mark battling it out and finishing in a tie at the steps of the hotel – the lads seem to have overlooked that this was a loosening out jog.
The troops then enjoyed a fine meal before the cultural highlight of the weekend – laser blasting at a converted farmyard some miles away. The laser blast was won by Tom Austin, a quite and shy chap!
After breakfast on Sunday we headed on to the track for the business end of the weekend the open sports hosted by Manx Harriers on the only athletics track in the Isle of Man. The track, a six lane track, was situated in a wonderful setting surrounded by the sports facilities, a large astro football pitch, a football stadium, a gymnasium facility and pool facility.
The Meet was attended by athletes from the four Isle of Man clubs. To say, however, that the Clonliffe athletes dominated really would be an understatement.
All our athletes performed superbly with top three positions in almost every event and several PBs into the bargain.
It was also particularly interesting to see a number of our athletes try other events, Jack Fay for example, more noted as a middle/long distance runner took in both the high jump and 100 metres hurdles. While in the younger age groups Aaron Wade took in the sprints and also the high jump where he was challenged by Ian Guiden over the first couple of rounds.
Race of the day was undoubtedly the boys 17’s 100 metres which was to be the decider to find ‘the fastest man in the Isle of Man’, there was virtually a dead heat between Graham Mahon and Conor Redmond and after much deliberation the judges gave the win to Graham in a time of 12.62 with Conor timed at 12.65.
The following were the results recorded by our athletes:
Boys 13 High Jump
1st Aaron Wade 1.35m
3rd Ian Guiden 1.10m
Girls 13 Long Jump
1st Leah Bergin 4.52m
3rd Niamh Lowney
4th Hannah McLoughlin
Boys 13 Long Jump
1st Wayne Plunkett 3.62
Girls 13 200 metres
1st Leah Bergin 28.94
3rd Lorna McDonnell 30.48
4th Niamh Lowney 35.39
Girls 13 100 metres
1st Leah Bergin 14.1
2nd Lorna McDonnell 14.6
4th Hannah McLoughlin
Boys 13 100 metres
2nd Aaron Wade
3rd Wayne Plunkett
Girls 13 800 metres
2nd Leah Bergin 2.57.5
3rd Lorna McDonnell 2.58.7
Boys 13 800 metres
1st Ian Guiden 2.30.2 (PB)
Boys 13 1500 metres
1st Ian Guiden 5.00.32 (PB)
Boys 13 75m hurdles
1st Aaron Wade
2nd Wayne Plunkett
Girls 13 discus
2nd Hannah McLoughlin 12.89
3rd Niamh Lowney 10.92
Girls 15 discus
1st Niamh Hussey 14.42
Girls 15 Shot put
1st Niamh Hussey 5.59
Girls 15 3000 metres
2nd Denise Callaghan 11.59 (PB)
Boys 17 100 metres
1st Graham Mahon 12.62
2nd Conor Redmond 12.65
Boys 17 200 metres
1st Graham Mahon 25.4
2nd Conor Redmond 25.49
4th Greg McLoughlin 27.43
Boys 15 400 metres
1st Mark Everett 67.99 (PB)
Boys 17 3000 metres
1st Jordan Logue 10.05.88
2nd Jack Faye 10.10.99
4th Mark McKenzie 10.25.09
Boys 17 800 metres
1st Tom Austin 2.05.36
3rd Jordan Logue 2.18.73
Boys 17 High Jump
1st Jack Faye 1.55m
Boys 17 discus
1st Tom Austin 29.46m
By any standards an extremely impressive set of results.
As the proceedings drew to a close our young athletes then headed to the pool while the exhausted coaches and administrator sat down for a rest and a quick bite to eat in a top class eatery to remain nameless. Early the following morning it was back home to Dublin.
In all this was an excellent weekend superbly organised as always by Gladys and Marian. It was a weekend which was thoroughly enjoyed by our young athletes who as always can be proud of the way they handled themselves over the course of the weekend. We look forward to the 2009 tour.