Clonliffe to the fore on historic Graded night

In an historic night last night`s (June 6th) Dublin Graded Meet at Morton Stadium saw Bandon AC`s Phil Healy set a new Irish women`s 100 record of 11.26. It was a perfect night: warm, sunny and not a breath of wind.

From a Clonliffe point of view there was great interest throughout the meet. The men`s A 100 was akin to a club championship won by Keith Pike in 10.98, 2nd was newly minted Clonliffe boy Eamonn Fahey 11.03, 5th Pascal Touche 11.44 and 6th Isreal Ibeanu 11.46.

Leah Bergin was 5th in the A 400 (58.12) with Diana Markina 6th in the B race (66.47). In the men`s 400 Mark McDonald ran 52.05 and  Cian Bolger  53.21, Niall Sherlock despite not quite blasting from the blocks in grade C, ran 58.72 to take 2nd place.

The 1500s were a tremendous spectacle with Clonliffe vests dominating proceedings. Sarah Bateson front ran her B grade race from the gun and after a solo run was some 50 plus meters clear winning in a season`s best of 5.14.61 with  Diana Markin in her 2nd race of the night running 6.01.13.

Of the men in their 1500s there were most encouraging runs. Colm Rooney in his A race was perfectly positioned throughout and kicked off the final bend to win in 4.00.38. Young Aaron Cullen ran an excellent pb in this race of 4.08.10 for 3rd place. Adam O`Brien ran 4.07.36 to 5th place in the 2nd A race. There were a number of B races Greg Hossenny was well clear of the pack as he dominated race 1 to win in 4.14.22. The next B race was most entertaining indeed with a super inter Clonliffe battle at the front Sean Carrig (4.16.51) 1st managing to hold off a battling Ben Guiden, who recorded a 7 second pb of 4.17.51 for 2nd and Shaun Conaghan 3rd 4.17.92. Great runs also by Stephen Cashin 5th 4.20.54 Ian McAlweney and Tom Sherlock. Also Alex Gibbons 4.32.49 and Eoghan Murphy 4.38.64 

In Madrid Clonliffe’s Ale Hernandez back home for the summer ran her first 800 of the season 2.26.