Today at TUS Athlone the Clonliffe men’s track and field team won the national indoor league for the 3rd year in succession, and the 8th time overall. The team carried a seven-point advantage into this 2nd and final round and were involved in the proverbial dogfight with DSD all morning long, it was only in the final couple of events that the title was secured.
First into the trenches was Eamonn Fahey placing 6th in the triple jump and adding 11 points to the cause with a best of 11.75. Rolus Olusa was 1st in track action, competing in the 60 hurdles, this was a somewhat nervy race with a couple of false starts, however Rolus kept his composure to finish 3rd (8.47) and bag 14 points.
Sean Carrigg, was his usual wholehearted self running a very competitive 800, finishing in 4th place in his heat (1.58.22), 7th overall. Next into the fray was Craig Duffy in the 200, where he was drawn in the unfavourable lane 3, Craig still put in a fine performance taking 1st place in his race (22.55) and 3rd place overall. Next in was Sean Cronin who ran a most mature race in the 3000 always in the top 3 and always in contention, after an excellent race he finished in 2nd place clocking a time of 8.33.70 and 15 points for the cause.
At this point Clonliffe and DSD were virtually tied. Cometh the hour, cometh the man. Into the battle stepped Niall Allen for the WFD and with the huge throw of 6.59m he was over 60cm clear to take the only Clonliffe win of the day and a most welcomed maximum points.
Meanwhile the pole vault competition was ongoing with Rolus back at. He had a best of 3.80m and took 3rd place. At this stage daylight was now emerging between 1st and 2nd with only the relay to go. Safe baton changes was the order of the day with the instruction to ‘just get the baton around’ and an 8th national indoor title would be secured. The team of Christopher Lynch, Jonny Fitzsimons, Jarlath Jordan and Craig Duffy did more than that, all ran superbly in heat 1, to finish in 2nd place behind DSD, in a time of 3.27.77, 13 points in the bag bringing an accumulated points total of 223, some 11 points clear of DSD in 2nd place on 212 with Ratoath 3rd position on 185.
This was a brilliant achievement by the men’s team, the team once again displaying great team spirit and camaraderie and a never say die attitude. To win this title for the 3rd year in succession is no mean feat and the team and coaches deserve huge credit. Nil desperandum.